Bright Lights
by Lavender Gaia
Summary: Some of the Xmen leave for college in NYC. But life is no easier there, as they have trouble with school, jobs, relationships...oh, and did I mention saving the city from any and all destruction? ON HIATUS
1. Beginning

Bright Lights

An X-men Evolution fanfic by Lavender Gaia

Editing and Assistance by Laine

Chapter One: Beginning

First draft: April 17, 2005—April 21, 2005

Disclaimer: I do not own X-men Evolution or any of its characters. They are all property of Marvel.

Note: Age wise the New Mutants are roughly 19; Kurt, Kitty and Rogue are roughly 20; Angel is roughly 21; and Jean and Scott are roughly 22. It's about three years after the end of the series, but the only prediction by Apocalypse that has come true is Magneto helping out with the kids, meaning, yes, Jubes and Rahne are back (though they will not have major parts in this story during my current mindset).

* * *

"Whew, last box!" Tabitha said as she dropped the cardboard parcel on the floor and wiped off the sweat that had gathered on her forehead.

"Yeah, but now we have to unpack," Amara wrinkled her nose. "That's the worst part!"

"At least we don't have to move any furniture," the blonde sighed, flopping on the couch. "How's the kitchen coming, Rogue?"

"Almost done." She poked her head over the island into the living room. "Remind meh again why Ah agreed to come early to clean the kitchen and the bathrooms."

"Because you said you'd have cleaned every place in the building if it meant not having to drive here with Kitty," Amara said, setting up some of the knick knacks on the shelves of the dining room.

"Which I totally don't understand," Kitty retorted from behind the television where she was setting up the satellite dish and TiVo. "I'm an awesome driver."

"Ah still remember when you were learning. It's scarred me for life."

Shadowcat rolled her eyes. "Anyway, TV, DSL, and phone are all set up."

"We're lucky we have such a techie geek in the house," Tabitha stretched from her position on the sofa.

"Hey!"

"It was a compliment, Kitty. Alright, I'm gonna get started unpacking the kitchen."

Amara put a few picture frames on top of the mantle. "I'll keep going out here."

"C'mon, Kit. We've got enough stuff for our room; we might as well start now." Rogue took her friends arm and started pulling her towards their bedroom.

"Tell us again why you two get the master bedroom," Tabitha requested.

"We're older and this was originally supposed to be our apartment before we generously offered to let you live with us after the Professor found out the last place here had already been sold," Kitty said.

"Oh, right. Carry on then."

Kitty and Rogue quickly divided the closet and drawers, then filled them up with their junk. It was work of only a few minutes before they began personalizing the new space. The southern girl looked over her roommates shoulder at a picture she was staring at and sighed. "Why do you have that?"

She traced her finger along the wooden frame. "Why can't I have it? I like this picture." Kitty stared back at herself from the photo, one arm around Lance. It had been her senior prom.

"You were the one who was so adamant about moving on and having a new beginning. If Ah remember correctly, he broke up with you."

"Doesn't mean I love him any less." She set the frame down on her nightstand. "I like just have to get over this in my own way, ok? Thanks though."

"No problem, Kitty. But if Ah hear you cryin' in the middle of the night one more time, Ah'm going over to the Brotherhood house to beat the crap outta him," Rogue punctuated the statement by punching her new mattress.

Kitty laughed. "I appreciate it. I think."

The doorbell rang. "Ah'll get it. You finish up in here. Ah know at least two of those boxes have to have shoes in them." Rogue walked out into the great room and opened the door.

A handsome man stood smiling in the hallway. "You're supposed to check the peephole first. They make them for a reason."

"Warren? Uh, c'mon in. And please, as if anyone at that door would be a match for us. What are ya doin here?"

He laughed. "I heard from Xavier that some of my former teammates had moved to my fair city and I thought I'd welcome you here. There's a great deli down the street, so I picked up lunch for you all."

"Food?" Tabitha got up from the floor of the kitchen. "You really are an angel."

Rogue poked her head back in the bedroom. "Hey, Warren brought over some lunch."

Kitty wiped the few tears that were falling down her face. "Great! I'll be right there."

Amara opened the top off a tray. "These sandwiches look excellent."

"Four different kinds of chips!" Tabitha exclaimed. "Warren Worthington III, you are a man after my own heart."

"Sandwiches? And what did you bring me, Mr. Angel?" Kitty questioned.

He held up another plastic bag. "Salad and garlic bread."

"You're the best," she kissed his cheek. "So what brings you here anyway?"

"Well, I figured you probably hadn't gone grocery shopping yet and you were probably hungry. I took the next few days off, figured I could show everyone around." He bit into a ham sandwich. "Besides, I'm having a party tomorrow and thought you'd like to come."

The girls were silent until Rogue spoke up. "Correct me if Ah'm wrong, but aren't ya'll's parties kinda fancy. Amara might, but Ah don't have anything to wear to that sorta thing."

"Oh, it's not that kind of party. Just some of my friends from college. No executives or CEOs, I promise. Since you'll probably be seeing them around campus anyway, it's good to get to know some people ahead of time, no?"

"I think it's a great idea!" Kitty chimed in. "Will there be dancing?"

"With you there, there'll have to be."

"And don't you forget it!"

The doorbell rang again. Once more, Rogue got up to get it, looking through the peep hole just to satisfy their guest. "Hey, Scott."

He came through the door once she'd opened it. "Hi, girls. Oh, hey, Warren. What are you doing here?"

"Just eating lunch with four of the most beautiful ladies in New York City," he stood to shake Scott's hand.

"Did you miss us already, Scott?" Tabitha drawled. "We're only two floors up."

"Not exactly. I just wanted you to know if there was anything you wanted me to pick you up from the grocery store while I'm there."

"How do you have time to go to the store already?" Amara demanded.

"I unpacked all my clothes and Jean said she'd handle the rest. Telekinesis is a wonderful thing," He grinned.

"Are you and Mrs. Summers having fun playing house?" Kitty asked while Tabitha drew up a short list.

"It's great so far. We're really getting along, sharing chores. I love it."

"Just wait till the sun sets. Bet you'll love it even more then," the blonde smirked as she handed over the list.

Scott rolled his eyes, but there was a hint of a blush to be detected on his cheeks. "Tab, this is all junk food." Not seeing the point, she didn't reply, causing him to sigh. "Whatever. Oh, and Amara, I think you'd better check on your boyfriend. When I went over there, they were having some problems."

Amara groaned. "Let me go call Bobby. See you later Scott."

The fearless leader let himself out as she got on the phone. "Hi, Bob. Uh huh. Ok…why is Ray screaming? Please tell me Kurt being on fire is a figure of speech. Ok, ok, tell Sam to hold on while I ask her. Hey, Kitty, could you go over there? The boys are having some technical difficulties."

Through the phone they could all hear Ray screaming. "I didn't do it! Whatever he told you was a lie! Lies I tell you!"

She rolled her eyes. "Tell them I'll be over in a sec, they're just two apartments down."

"Bobby? Did you hear that? Ok. Alright. I'm gonna let you go. Call or come over if there's any trouble. I love you too. Bye." She hung up. "Don't worry Rogue, they managed to put out the fire on your brother."

"That's comforting. How—No, no, actually Ah don't wanna know."

"Wise decision," Tabitha agreed through a mouthful of chips.

Warren grinned. "Looks like the city just got a bit more hectic with ten new mutants here."

"Well, we do tend to bring chaos and destruction wherever we go," Rogue said dryly.

"Hey, it's not that bad. We only destroyed part of what—a church—when we first met?" Angel asked.

"Something like that. Ah don't remember too much except to not be hundreds of feet in the air when the powers Ah stole run out." She looked at her savior. "Did Ah ever thank you for that?"

"If not you just did."

He had a point. "Alright then. Just remember, Ah owe you."

"Oh, I'll remember."

Tabitha got up from the dining room table. "Ah, thanks, Warren. That was awesome. I'm gonna get back to work now so I can relax the rest of the day."

Kitty came back a few minutes later, rolling her eyes. "Man, men can't do anything without us."

"I resent that," Warren said.

"Mr. I-have-two-maids-and-a-driver," Rogue snorted.

"…Point taken…"

Amara frowned from where she was figuring out how to hang the pictures on the walls. "Should I go over there?"

"Actually, yeah. Bobby was sort of hinting that he'd wanted you to come over as well," Kitty retook her place back at the table, crunching on a piece of garlic bread happily.

The princess sighed. "Tabs, when you unpack your stuff in the room and the bathroom, leave some space for me, ok?"

"Sure thing, roomie."

"I'll be back later, guys. Thanks again, Warren," Amara jogged down the plush blue carpet of the hallway to room 803, not even bothering to knock. "Hey, guys."

"You were supposed to knock," Ray said pointedly.

"Dude, its Amara," Bobby rolled his eyes. "She's my girlfriend. I was gonna get her a key anyway." He stood up and kissed her. "Hey, babe."

"Hey yourself. What are you guys doing?" She looked around at the big mess that should have been their living room.

"Remembering why it's such a good idea to label your boxes. And why it's a bad idea to mix contents, such as kitchen wear and shoes!" Kurt looked pointedly as Sam.

"Hey, it was an accident!"

Amara rolled her eyes. "Ok, everyone take a room, then we won't have two people in the same space at once. Kurt, you do the living room. Sam: Bathroom. Ray: Kitchen."

Bobby wrapped his arm around her waist. "And Amara and I'll take the bedroom." He kissed her neck lightly.

"But we'll be unpacking, right?"

"…Yes, dear." The five worked for about an hour, which was plenty of time to get the apartment looking better.

Ray had finished unpacking his things next to Bobby's in the room they shared. He went back out to the living room to make sure the DSL that Kitty had set up was working correctly. This gave his roommate and Amara a chance to be alone when they weren't working.

Bobby wrapped and arm around the princess's waist, gently pulling her to lay on the bed with him. They kissed for a moment before he just hugged her to his chest and sighed. "Man, this is amazing. I never thought this would happen."

She brushed a lock of hair out of his eyes. "You didn't?"

"Well, kids always think that they'll grow up and go to a big school like Harvard and have a fantastic apartment and blar blar blar. But as you get older you start thinking about where you want to go for you, and finances start getting in the way and reality hits you. I'm living the dream: I have a great apartment with my friends that's paid for, I'm gonna go to a great school, and I have the most beautiful girl in the world to share it with," he kissed her again.

Amara smiled. "If you had told me a few years ago I'd be here, I'd have said you were nuts. I mean, most of this stuff I've only known for a few years. And I have you, so that makes me extra lucky."

He hugged her tighter. "Man, now I'm bumming myself out."

"…Huh?"

"Well, it's just that everything is so great now. It gives you this feeling that nothing'll be this good again, can't go anywhere but downhill."

She sat up and looked down at him. "Don't think that way. If anyone deserves this, it's all of us! It would be some sort of cruel joke if we had to experience any more pain."

Bobby pulled her down again and kissed her forehead. "When has that ever mattered?"

* * *

Jean Grey-Summers loved her balcony. She could already imagine romantic dinners out here with Scott as they watched the sunset. A sigh escaped her lips. They had waited two years to attempt college, and even though their marriage was holding strong and they had a wonderful opportunity ahead of them, she wasn't quite sure they were ready.

The apartment door opened, revealing her loving husband as he pushed the groceries inside using the cart supplied near the service elevator. "Honey, I'm home!"

She rolled her eyes at his corniness. "Hey, you. The shopping go well?"

"After I finally found a store. I'm starting to realize why they say not to drive anywhere in New York," He poked his head outside to give her a quick kiss. "You wanna help me put these away?"

"Sure." She sat down at the island counter, levitating things into the cabinets.

"Thanks, hon. The place looks great."

"It was fun," she replied honestly. "Hey, we're probably the only people with food, right? Well, why don't we invite everyone down? Classes are going to start soon and then we'll barely see each other. I don't want us to lose touch yet."

"We just moved in. I doubt we're going to lose touch on the first day," he laughed. "But go ahead. It'll be fun. We'll play boys vs. girls as we watch Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune, just like back home."

She grinned, leaning over and kissing him firmly. "Thanks." She sent out a telepathic message to Kitty and Kurt: Do you guys want to come down and hang out? Just show up if you do, everyone's welcome. Jean blinked, releasing the hold on their minds. "I sent the messages down."

About a minute later, the doorbell rang. "C'mon in!" Scott told whoever was at the door.

All nine of their friends came in. "Warren!" Jean grinned at the sight of her winged friend. "What are you doing here?"

"Hanging out, like you offered. It's good to see you Jean," he kissed her cheek. "Or should I say Mrs. Summers."

The redhead grinned and examined the diamond ring on her finger. "Either will do."

The eleven teammates settled in the living room and the talk got to be about college. "What's everyone studying anyway?" Kurt asked.

"Let's make this easier," Ray decided. "Everyone who doesn't have a clue raise their hands." He did so, followed by Rogue, Bobby, Sam and Kurt.

"You guys really don't know what you want to study?" Kitty asked, flabbergasted.

"Yeah, well, what are you studying?" Bobby wondered.

"Computer science!"

Scott rolled his eyes. "That was an easy one. What I want to know is what you're planning to study, Tabitha."

The blonde girl grinned. "Fashion!"

They remembered the "dress" she had worn to the Sadie Hawkins dance, so decided just to smile and nod politely. "That's, um, nice, Tabby," Jean started, desperate to change the subject. "What about you, Warren? What have you been up to?"

"Another easy one," Rogue explained. "Business."

"She's right. I'm going to take over the family business one day, might as well know what I'm doing," Warren stretched his wings out. "What about you, Scott?"

"I was thinking about going into Education. High school science or PE. Maybe both, like Mr. McCoy."

Amara, Bobby and Ray burst out laughing. "Y-You! A teacher?" Bobby managed to choke out before roaring louder, clutching his sides.

"Scott is not a bad teacher!" Jean protested. "We got you to listen didn't we?"

"Only after shooting at me with your eyes!" Bobby exclaimed. "Not exactly allowed to do that in the public school system."

Scott frowned at the group of his former students. "Yes, but I wouldn't be teaching a room full of students. Meaning no one is going to set their handouts on fire," he glared at Amara.

"Or create an ice statue of themselves so they can skip class!" Jean reminded Bobby angrily, only sending the three into more fits of laughter as they high-fived each other.

"I missed this!" Tabitha gaped. "Man, I would have paid to see that!"

"Anyway," Kitty interrupted. "What are you studying, Jean?"

"Genetics," she replied simply. "I want to really know what this whole mutant thing is about. The world needs someone studying it that won't be biased and will basically know what they're going through. I'll be my own research project."

Rogue nodded respectfully. "That sounds nice Jean. It's a good field for you."

The redhead blinked in surprise. "Thanks, Rogue. Ok, Amara, your turn."

"Well, I was born into my job. So I'm studying government and international relations while I'm here. I want to learn as much as I can before I go back." Amara smiled lightly. "I want to be a good ruler for my people, no matter how different our ways may be from my life here."

Kitty noticed the way Bobby tensed up as her friend mentioned Nova Roma and sent an encouraging smile in his direction. "So, uh, Kurt. You don't have any idea of what you want to do?"

He shrugged. "Well, I know I want to work with people. But that's about it."

The group thought for a while before Scott got an idea. "Why don't you be a social worker? You'll help a lot of people. It's a pretty thankless job, but so is being an X-man, so you should be used to it."

"That's a good idea," Rogue agreed. "Ah mean, you know a lot of people that went through the process. You had foster parents yourself."

"Except my social services was a river," he recalled. "But you're right. I like the idea of helping kids find a place to belong, where they'll really be loved. I'm going to look in to that. Thank you."

"Alright, they're all set," Amara smirked and poked her boyfriend. "What about you, mister?"

"Uhhh…" Bobby replied intelligently. "Ray, what about you?"

The other boy shrugged. "Not a clue."

The Iceman thought this over. "You could always be an electrician."

"As soon as you make snow cones for a living."

"Hey, that's not a bad idea!"

Amara elbowed him in the stomach. "Bobby!"

"Ow…it was a joke…unless you went for it…" He sighed. "Look, I'm not sure what I wanna do yet. I'll just do the core classes and explore a little. Unlike some of you," he shot a look towards Kitty and Jean, "I didn't take all AP classes."

"So, we'll just figure out what we wanna do as we go along, and ya'll can do your studies the way you want to," Sam agreed.

Rogue was glad no one had asked her. She was as clueless as the rest of them. "So…uh…you got your TV set up without Kitty?"

Jean nodded and picked up the remote with her TK. "Yeah, it wasn't that big of a deal. Here, let's see what's on."

The large television came to life as they watched for anything special as Jean flipped through the channels. "This is Trish Peterson with channel 10 breaking news. A large fire has broken out at P.S. 105. Students are still trapped on the upper floors. The NYPD and FDNY urge parents not to panic, as they are doing whatever they can to put out the fire."

Everyone stared at the television in shock. "Those poor kids…" Amara whispered.

Jean watched her husband get up and walked towards the bedroom. "Scott, where are you going?"

"Jean, we may not be in Bayville anymore, but I'm still an X-man. And I have a duty to save those kids." He shrugged. "You don't have to come, but...they don't deserve this and I want to help them."

His wife kissed his cheek softly. "Come on, I know where I packed our uniforms."

The two left the room, leaving their friends sitting in silent before Rogue spoke up. "Well," she smirked. "What are ya'll waitin' for? We wanted adventure in our new lives, right?"

"This is going to be one of those 'Be careful what you wish for' things mixed with a 'You can never truly escape your past/who you are meant to be' thing, isn't it?" Ray asked Sam with a sigh.

"Yep."

"Damn."

* * *

A/N: Hey, everyone! New series featuring most of my favorite characters. Don't worry, I will be bringing other people in. It's not just these guys, since that would be kinda boring. As for ten college students having great apartments in New York City…well…Their mentor is a rich telepath and this is fanfiction, so it is allowed to have convenient plot devices. 

If anyone can think of majors for the ones who are without, let me know! I'm considering accounting for Bobby (I'm pretty sure that's what his comic job was), but I'm totally lost on the others, besides Sam. You'll find out about that later though.

As for pairings…well, obviously Jean and Scott are together. That's a given. Bobby and Amara are dating as well. For anyone that is horribly distraught at Lance and Kitty, all you have to do is check my profile to see how I feel about that couple. ((In other words, don't worry about it.)) I'm gonna be experimenting with different couples in this, so if you have any suggestions or guesses, just put it in a review!

Questions, comments, reactions and reviews are greatly appreciated.


	2. Flames

Bright Lights

An X-men Evolution fanfic by Lavender Gaia

Editing and Assistance by Lavender Gaia

Chapter Two: Flames

First draft: April 29, 2005

Disclaimer: I do not own X-men Evolution or any of its characters. They are all property of Marvel. Everyone you see here that wasn't in the show belongs to me or whoever their namesake is.

* * *

Everyone changed into their uniforms and met back at Scott and Jean's apartment, where the fearless leader gave out instructions. "Unlike in Bayville we don't have all the newest technology, but we'll have to make due with what we have. Jean can take two with her, and Angel, you can carry one, right?"

The winged man nodded and held up his keys. "Yes. My car is downstairs if you need to use it. It has GPS and everything"

"Right. Kitty, you drive some over, phase through anything you need to," Scott instructed as Warren tossed her the keys. "What about you, Kurt?"

"I can teleport over, but I'd rather not take anyone with me, so I can get there faster," the German explained.

"That's fine. Why don't you get going? Just head towards the smoke and flames, I guess," He nodded to the blue boy, who waved before teleporting out. "Amara, why don't you come with Jean and me? You're the lightest, less for her to carry."

Bobby looked worried about being separated from his girlfriend. She kissed him lightly, "Don't worry. I'll see you there."

Angel reached over, picking Rogue up. She wrapped her arms around his neck hesitantly. "Why me?"

"I'd look weird carrying one of the boys and you've done this before. I know you won't get scared," he explained, adjusting her in his grip.

"Whatever," She rolled her eyes as he walked out to the balcony and took off.

Scott nodded. "Alright, the rest of you go with Kitty. We'll meet up here afterwards. Try not to let anyone see you, if you can help it. It was bad enough in Bayville; we don't want to alienate ourselves the first day here."

Kitty nodded, leading her group into the hall, then the elevator. "When we get downstairs I need you to make a distraction, Tabby. We know you're good at that."

The blonde nodded, already charging up some energy bombs. When the doors opened, she threw them to the side, creating a small series of explosions. Workers and residents rushed over to see what had happened, giving them a clear shot at Warren's BMW outside the doors.

Kitty started it up as Sam plugged the address into the GPS. Without even waiting for a break in traffic, she pulled out, phasing through the other cars. After the first couple of streets they ignored the GPS, taking the back alleys not lit up on the digital map to avoid traffic and pedestrians who might think it was odd the way the car drove through buildings. No one seemed to look twice though; after all, it was New York City.

They parked in an alleyway two blocks from the school, making sure to lock and set the alarm. Warren would have been pissed if his BMW was stolen.

Overhead, the six that hadn't drove over were arriving. Angel alighted with Rogue, setting her down lightly on the grass before heading up to a window he could see bodies in. Jean didn't waste any time as Scott blasted a hole through the wall with his optic blasts. She dropped the three of them in, scanning the room for thoughts other than her friends.

Amara changed into her Magma form, walking casually through the flames, as the head didn't bother her. She pulled two kids out from what used to be a bathroom before handing them over to Jean. Her telekinesis allowed her to set the boys on the ground, safe from the fire.

Kurt had found an entire class of trapped students and went along getting them out by groups. Finally, the last two were safe on the grass. A girl threw her arms around his neck, "Thank you, Mr. Fuzzy!"

He blinked in surprise. "Ja, you're welcome!" He saluted the group before poofing away once more.

Kitty's group had found a side entrance. Tabitha blasted it open and Bobby iced it off, supporting the structure and cooling it in one blow. Everyone set off in different directions. The Iceman cooled off important routes. Kitty knew she was responsible for getting into the difficult areas, and continuously poked her head through walls to see if anyone was there.

"Shadowcat!" Ray called to her. "There are a few kids trapped under the stairs, and they say there's not much oxygen left. They can't breathe."

She nodded grimly, taking a deep breath of polluted air before phasing into the small closet where the three children had taken refuge. Steadying herself, she pulled them all out, showed them an exit before collapsing against Ray. "Thanks," she murmured breathlessly.

He grinned, holding her up. "No big. I'm not much good as anything but a scout on rescue missions anyway."

"Look out below!" Bobby called down from the third floor of the school. The pair jumped out of the way as an ice slide appeared where they were standing. Iceman watched the kids slide down, then run through the main doors to their parents. He followed them to the ground floor. "Whoa, that's a rush, you should try it!"

Shadowcat and Berzerker both hit him over the head. "Think you can make a ladder to get us up there?" She asked, phasing the three of them through debris that were falling from what was left of the ceiling.

"Coming right up!" Their order was done in a matter of seconds and the trio went in search of victims on the second floor.

In another part of the school, Angel set down tiredly next to Rogue. He had saved a countless number of students, but the wings on his back were as tired as any other part of his body and were going on strike. She leaned him against a chain link fence. "Rest for a bit, Sugar. Ya look like ya need it."

Rogue pulled off her glove and touched it gently to his face. A flash of his memories spilled in to her mind, but she was too distracted by the wings forming on her back to look through them. It would be something to go over while she took a long, hot shower. But right now there were still kids who needed her, and she took off again.

Tabitha and Kitty were exploring the East Wing when the blonde saw her best friend walk out of the ash and flames. "You have no idea how cool that looks," Tabby told Amara honestly, wishing she had a camera.

The princess ignored that. "There are some kids trapped behind a fallen beam, but I can't get to them without starting more fire."

"Boom Boom is on the job! Kids, stand back!" After Amara guessed the size of the wood, she fixed up a bomb and launched it. A satisfying explosion was heard. "Hey, Magma, you can get through their, but how are we supposed to get them out?"

Sam grinned as he appeared behind the girls. "Leave that to the invincible cannonball!" He burst through, stopping himself long enough to get the kids and go back to the safe area. Because of his powers, they were unharmed during the blasts and followed that with a trip down to the first floor.

"Help!" They heard someone. "Is someone there?"

Kitty stuck her head through a hole, making out figures. "Hello?"

"We're stuck in here! She's in a wheelchair and I can't carry her out of here!" The attendant explained.

Luckily, at that moment Scott was coming out of another corridor. "Is something up?" He asked, scanning his crew quickly for any major injuries.

"Cyclops, we're needed down below," she took his hand and phased them through the floor, landing surprisingly gracefully despite the charred wood that was below them. "Hi," she greeted the two as calmly as possible. "We're here to help."

Scott picked up the young, crippled child. He understood why her attendant couldn't get her through the maze of burning beams and walls, though she looked certainly strong enough to carry her.

Kitty took hold of them, moving the group through the labyrinth until they reached the main entrance, which had a clear opening. "Are you angels?" The older woman asked breathlessly as the leader of the X-men handed the little girl to her.

He smiled. "No. We're just regular people who help others who need it."

"I think you're much more than that," the woman nodded her head in thanks before going towards the open doors. "May God bless you and your strong hearts!"

Rogue flew down, letting another child go as he ran to his parents. The rest of the team quickly assembled, but she didn't see her brother. "Where's Nightcrawler?"

"I don't know," Jean replied, doing a mind scan of the school. "I think we got everyone though."

"Not quite!" Kurt explained as he teleported in. "I found a few teachers in the faculty lounge. It's right over there." He pointed.

"Tell everyone to stand back," Scott insisted. "I'll blast it in."

The blue boy nodded and bamfed away as Sam looked up. "Oh, no, the ceiling's cavin' in!"

"Not while I'm here," Jean grumbled, supporting it. "Just get everyone out soon, I don't think I can hold it for too long. There's nothing else left to hold it up."

The optic blasts easily tore through the wall as the rest of the group led the frantic teachers out. Once the last victim had left the building, Cyclops announced, "X-men, out!"

He led them towards the back of the school, away from any news cameras. Jean struggled to hold the roof over them. She stood by as they all ran out, desperately steadying the structure. But as a wingless Rogue—the last member of the team—left, she couldn't take it any more and lost control.

"JEAN!" Scott screamed in terror as the building fell on his wife. Kitty became intangible, diving into the rubble after her lost friend. A moment later she pulled the redhead out. The leader swooped up his love, kissing the top of her head and carefully wiping away blood from a shallow gash on her chin. "Are you ok?"

"I've been better," she smiled weakly. "Thanks, Shadowcat."

"No problem," the brunette muttered before falling against Kurt.

A newly revived Angel approached the group as they waited for instructions. Scott cradled his wife for a moment before placing her in Warren's arms. "Try to stay with us for a little bit longer, ok? Rogue, I need you to take her powers and fly Amara and me back to the apartment. Warren, take Jean. Everyone else, same as last time. Don't bother coming back to the base, I'm sure you need to rest as much as we do. Dismissed."

Kitty's group worked their way back to the car slowly, prepared to apologize to Angel for whatever dirt and blood they got on the car. She didn't bother to phase through traffic. It probably wouldn't hold very long and it would be bad if they suddenly fused molecules with a building or another car.

Once everyone was back home and Jean had gotten a hold of herself, they battled for showers. Scott was the loving husband and let his wife go first, knowing she had to clean the gashes in her body from the building falling on her.

Amara let them know that princesses didn't wait to take a shower, and mad, dirty princesses melted their roommate's things with molten lava. Since everyone was sick of fire for the rest of their lives, she got the first time. The boys were more understanding, knowing that getting ash and smoke out of your fur couldn't be fun. Kurt had won that war.

After she was finished, Jean settled on the couch in her light blue bathrobe, towel-drying her luscious locks. Scott had helped bandage up the cuts before climbing into the shower himself. Of course, the delicate kisses he had placed on them were already helping to heal her.

He joined her about ten minutes later, dressed in only a pair of boxers and a wife beater. "What are you doing?" he asked, tilting her to rest against his chest instead of the couch arm.

"Waiting for the news to come on. I want to hear what they say about us," she sighed. "Even if it's bad." Scott kissed her softly, then stared at the TV as the news broadcast started.

"Good evening, I'm Jennifer Range with your channel ten news. Today's breaking story is a large fire that broke out at P.S. 105. Because of the design of the building, most students were trapped as the fire quickly spread across the ground floor. With a weak foundation, the FDNY was unable to help them. Surprisingly, the children were saved by a group of unknown vigilantes. Mark Bond is on the scene. Mark?"

The scene switched to a man that was standing in front of the school. "Yes, Jennifer. Witnesses say that they weren't aware of the help until the children started to appear safe out of the building. Besides faculty and students of the school, no one saw the saviors. There is speculation, however, that this is a job of a mutant organization."

Cold terror gripped the heart of Jean Summers as she watched an interview with the police chief. "We do have beliefs that mutants were involved. There is no solid evidence, but if the FDNY couldn't get in there, we can't think of any other way anyone can help hundreds of people escape without super powers."

They saw a mother hugging her son as a reporter questioned, "There are rumors that the help could be from mutants. What do you think of this?"

The woman fixed her glare on the camera. "I don't care if it was rogue circus clowns! They saved my son, and for that they are heroes, no matter what our government thinks."

The Summers couple blinked in surprise as Scott whispered, "You don't think…?"

Another shot showed a little girl pulling on her father's leg. "A fuzzy man saved me, Daddy! Me and all my friends!"

He picked her up. "Did you thank him?"

"Yep! And I gave him a big hug!" She threw her arms around his neck. "He felt just like my teddy bear!"

The man didn't do anything to hide the tears rolling down his face. "Good girl. And, whoever you are, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I lost my wife recently and…if I had lost my Jessica too…Thank you, thank you."

Jean now realizes she was crying, as she viewed two parents with their five children, one of them being the girl in the wheelchair. "They think whoever saved our kids were mutants?" The father repeated, then thought about this. "Well, then mutants must be the greatest things our society has to offer these days. No one dangerous and evil would risk their lives for kids they don't know. Our kids are the most precious things we have. I feel better letting mine go to school now that I know someone will be there to save them. Does this make me a mutant lover now? Hell yes."

They shot back to the reporter. "According to Principal Bell, every child and teacher is alive and counted for. Many are in the hospital being treated for severe burns and respiratory distress, but everyone should pull through and recover completely. Without our mysterious helpers, this could have been a lot worse. I'm Mark Bond, reporting for channel 10 news."

Scott reached over and turned off the television. "Wow. I…I can't believe it."

His wife snuggled him, letting her tears drip into his shirt. "I guess every once in a while we actually do something right."

"The Professor always said we should do good with our powers, help those who need it," he mused. "I never really understood that until now. Jean, even if I don't become a teacher or a coach…I still want to be an X-man."

She smiled at him, green eyes twinkling. "Me too, Scott. Me too."

* * *

"It's only our second day here. Should I be offended that you're leaving?" Kurt teased his roommate as Sam packed up his duffel bag the next day. 

"'Course not!" Cannonball joked, zipping up the nylon sack. "Ah'm just trying to get away from Drake."

"I heard that!" Bobby shouted from the kitchen.

Sam grinned. "Anyway, I'll be back in a few days. This'll be my last chance at a motocross race before we start school. Mr. Logan already set up my bike and everythin', Ah don't wanna disappoint him."

"You're gonna miss Warren's party," Ray pointed out from the couch.

"He'll have others," Bobby said. "But I don't get it. I mean, I know you went to a lot during the summer, but aren't motocross races for professionals?"

"Ah like to think of myself as a professional, thank you," Sam glared at his best friend. "Sure, Ah'll probably be the only racer there who isn't sponsored, but Mr. Logan's helped me fix up my bike to racing conditions, and I just do it for fun. Anyway, Ah'd better go or Ah'll miss the train to Bayville. See ya'll in a few days!"

"Bye, Sam!" They all waved as their Kentucky farm boy left.

A few minutes later, their intercom rang. Kurt hopped up to get it, hoping it would be who he thought it was. "Yes?"

"There's an Amanda Sefton here to see you," The guard told him.

"Ja, please send her up." In a minute, there was a knock at the door and he threw it open to see his girlfriend. "Amanda!"

"Kurt!" She leaned over and hugged him. "Wow, this place is great. How is it here?"

"It's wonderful. We haven't had any major fights, the girls are down the hall, Jean and Scott are downstairs, and it's near some pretty great restaurants," he explained, sitting down on the couch with her.

She giggled. "Of course your second day here you'd know all the best places to eat."

Bobby and Ray came out of their room, slipping keys into their pockets. "Were you guys talking about food?" Bobby asked. "We're heading down to this pizza place with Kitty, Amara and Tab. Wanna come?"

The couple exchanged a look before Kurt replied, "I think we're gonna stay here, thanks. Tell me how it is."

"Will do," Ray promised, opening the door so they could meet the girls. "We'll be back soon anyway. I still don't get why they need three hours to get ready for Warren's party, but whatever. See you guys later."

"Warren's having a party?" Amanda asked as the boys shut the door behind them.

"Ja. Do you want to come?"

"I don't have anything to wear," she mumbled lightly.

"We do know five other girls who live in this apartment building," he pointed out. "I'm sure one of them could lend you something."

She sighed. "After what I have to tell you, you probably won't want me to come anyway."

Kurt frowned. "Amanda, what's wrong?"

"Well, you know I applied to a lot of schools, just in case I didn't get in to Columbia or NYU. I even sent in an application to Stanford. They accepted me, full academic scholarship," she explained.

"Amanda, that's amazing!"

"Yeah. What's even more amazing is that my dad went there and now they want him to teach. So both of my parents are moving there too," She looked at his face. "It's a great school. The only problem is…it's in California."

His excited expression fell. "That's very far away."

"I know. Kurt, I've given this a lot of thought and…I can't give up this offer. I'd see my parents a lot and I'd get such a good education. Full scholarship!" She bit her bottom lip. "I don't want to leave you though."

"I would never ask you to stay and give this up," He stroked her cheek lightly. "You deserve this. And I of all people understand wanting to be with your parents."

Amanda hugged him tightly, blinking back tears. "You're being so great about this."

"When are you leaving?" He asked quietly.

"In two days. My dad and I are leaving to get there before school starts. Mom's going to stay back for a while to send us our stuff gradually and sell the house," she told him.

"Wow…" Kurt whispered. "That's a very short time to be going so far away."

"I should have told you soon, I know," she said hurriedly. "I didn't want to upset you, with all the chaos you were going through with moving. Especially since I think we'll have to break up. I don't think I can manage a long-distanced relationship, especially when my parents don't want me to see you as it is."

"I wouldn't be selfish enough to keep you to myself when you have so much to give to others." He brushed back a lock of her hair.

"You're the most wonderful boyfriend in the world. Any girl would be blessed to have you. I guess it just wasn't meant to be for us," she whispered, more tears filling her eyes.

"Why don't you come to the party tonight?" He offered again. "It can be sort of a last date type of thing. One last night for you to spend with your friends before going to California."

"Thanks, Kurt. I think I'll take you up on that," she grinned, resting against his shoulder as the movie they had been waiting to see started.

He put his arm around her. Kurt was determined not to let it show that his heart was breaking. _How come the thing you want to stay the same the most always has to change? _He wondered.

In his pocket, his cell phone vibrated. Pulling it out, he said lowly into the mouthpiece, "Hello?"

"Kurt? It's Rogue."

"Oh, hey. What's up?"

"Well, you said you were going to take German, right? I was just wondering if you'd mind if I took it with you," His sister asked quickly.

He blinked. "I…No, of course not. Why the sudden interest?"

"I've been thinking about asking you to teach me for a while. I'm in the bookstore and I saw that all translation dictionaries were 50 off and I thought I'd pick up a German one. Then I realized that I might as well take the class with you and we could learn together," she explained. "Well, I could learn and you'd have an easy class."

"That would be wonderful," he told her as a grin lit his face.

"Great. I'm sure you're with Amanda, so I'll let you go." As an afterthought she added, "See you tonight…bro."

"Bye, sis." Kurt closed his cell phone, holding the warm object in his hand as he smiled at a picture of himself and his sister on the other side of the room. Suddenly he didn't feel so lonely anymore.

* * *

A/N: Lots of fun moments in this chapter and I believe it's even longer than the last one. This is the first time I've ever written a team action sequence, so I'd love to know what you thought of it. Constructive criticism does help. Since Amanda is leaving for now, I'm going to be experimenting with other relationships for Kurt. Send in suggestions! (Nothing sick like Kurt/Rogue though. Ew.) 

If you don't know from In the Heat or my bio, I did have surgery on Wednesday. Nothing majorly serious, but updates really depend on how I'm feeling and how drugged up I am at the moment. Laughter is the best medicine, so recommend any humor fics I might like. Reviews will honestly get me to work faster (I'm not just saying that so I'll get more). All encouragement is helpful since it takes a while for me to get into a good position to write and I won't bother if you guys don't want me to update.

Questions, comments, reactions and reviews are greatly appreciated.

* * *

Review Responses: 

Simba317: There will be some Romy in this and I'll be doing a bunch of stuff with Kitty. As much as I love Pyro, I can not even try to attempt at writing his ultimate goodness. I'm just not that talented. I agree with you that Kitty and Rogue work best together. I'm not an XME Rogue fan, but I always find her the most likeable with Kitty. Thanks for reading.

DOJ: I loved those lines too. My beta cracked up when I told her. Glad you liked it.

Diaz F.: Most of the college experiences I know are through my sister, as I am still a lowly high school student. I'm doing a lot of things with Kitty and Kurt in this fic that I've never attempted before, so who even knows what I'll come up with. Thanks for reading.

Wen1: I've planned a lot of fun things with JOTT. Writing them married is fun!

Ingrid: Don't worry, I plan on updating both this and In the Heat as much as possible.

Slickboy444: Having Scott and Jean married just opens up so many options. And I actually don't write Bobby/Amara because of the fire and ice thing (since she's technically liquid magma...). They're just really cute together and seem to care about each other a lot. This is the fic where I'm planning on fooling around with a lot of Kurt and Kitty pairings. Amanda's out of the way for now, still not sure if/when I'm going to bring her back. I'm really glad you like it!

Quillian: Thank you!

Elizabeth: It's a lot easier to navigate the cast if their all in one place, save Angel. If I threw them around a lot I'd probably end up losing someone…Thanks for reading.

Whylime: Yeah, my sister and her boyfriend were the same way. Must have changed majors five times (and colleges three times). I'm still not sure what I'm doing for a lot of them, so they'll probably change with my whims.

Mattb3617: I really like your idea for Bobby. I might use that, as I'm pretty much blank on what to do for him and my beta isn't any help. Agriculture seems good for Sam, but I have some plans for him that will be revealed later. I hope you keep reading!

Rogue14: Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Darkstorm5000: The only problem I have with Rogue doing psychology (and I might use it for a time) is that you have to go through years of therapy yourself to get a degree and because of all the Mystique mind games I actually don't think she'd pass. My sister did it for some time and a lot of people she knew broke down, so she switched majors. I'll have to ask her about it to use in the fic, thank you for the idea! As for Bobby, I might use accounting, though being good at numbers isn't really shown in the show.

Telepathic Angel: Yes, there will be plenty of JOTT! I hope you liked this chapter.

Jenskott: I don't really know that much about Betsy except that she's from England and she's Psylocke (…right?). If I read more about her as I work on this story she might be in there, but I have other plans for Angel right now. Don't worry, there won't be any change in the JOTT though.

GothikStrawberry: Law…I didn't think of that, but it might be interesting. I'd love to see those other guys think she'd suck because of how she looks and then have her give them a run for their money. Thanks for the idea!


	3. Party

Bright Lights

An X-men Evolution fanfic by Lavender Gaia

Editing and Assistance by Laine

Chapter Three: Party

First draft: May 21, 2005 – June 3, 2005

Disclaimer: I do not own X-men Evolution or any of its characters. They are all property of Marvel. I also do not own Riley Egan or any of the other party guests who are all real rich kids that I went to school with and belong to themselves.

Note: I'd like to apologize for an inaccuracy in chapter 1. Rogue is 21-ish, the same as Warren, a year older than Kitty and Kurt. It doesn't make too much of a difference, but I just wanted to clear it up. Sorry for my mistake!

* * *

Warren Worthington III was a very rich man. He was born into a life of BMWs, yacht parties and summer houses in Paris. Common jokes around his friends were that he must be gay, because he never seemed to go after too many women, though he could sleep with anyone he wanted to. Warren just laughed and assured them they were wrong; he was waiting for someone he truly loved, not a gold digger that'll try to kill him in his sleep and steal all his money.

But unlike all—or at least most—of his country club pals, Warren Worthington III was a mutant. His genetics caused him to sprout wings when he hit puberty. With these wings he could fly like a bird. For a while, he used this power as a vigilante, going by the name Angel.

As Angel he had met a group of mutants called the X-men and made good friends with them. When a bunch of them moved to his great city to go to college, he didn't hesitate inviting them to his party. And while the rest of the guests were their age, they were also rich children of business tycoons and doctors.

So even though only half of his rich friends had shown up and none of the X-men, Warren had been worried sick for the last hour. How would they react to each other? Would they get into fights? Bobby and Ray were not known for keeping their tempers, and that was completely forgetting Tabitha. The rest of the girls weren't exactly against telling anyone off.

"I really hope no one hits on Amara too much," he realized. "It would be very painful to die by being frozen and melted by lava at the same time."

Of course, seeing as Amara was gorgeous and probably richer than a lot of them, this was inevitable. He would warn them when they came in. Yes, yes, that's right, he'd warn them ahead of time. Good plan, Warren.

This didn't stop him from pacing back and forth between two chairs, and one of his maids noticed. "Nervous, Master Warren?"

"Does it show?" He asked weakly. "I shouldn't worry. All of my friends are very nice and I made sure everything extremely breakable and priceless was hidden."

"Master Warren," his butler called from the doorway. "Mr. Egan and his date have arrived."

As if on cue, Riley Egan entered with a bouncy blonde on his arm. "Wow, this place is really nice," she gushed, fluttering eyelashes that were heavy with mascara.

_Oh, right, this is Riley's girl of the week. What's her name again?_ Warren looked quickly where he was sure it was written on Riley's arm. "Thank you, Mia."

"I hear you're inviting some new people," Riley smirked. "What next? A keg?"

"Very funny. I think we just finished mixing margaritas, help yourself," Warren gestured to the bar, where a blender was going strong.

"You know me oh so well. C'mon, Mi," he and his date walked over, yearning for an alcoholic beverage. Warren was starting to want one himself. Instead, he excused himself to the bathroom where he splashed some water on his face carefully. After assuring himself once again that everything would go smoothly and all his friends would love each other, he entered back into the main room.

"Master Warren?" the butler approached him. "Your friends are here."

Indeed they were. And Warren was surprised to find that the X-men were mingling with his college pals. Of course, most of the guys had gathered around Kitty, who looked quite stunning in a lavender shirt and skirt.

Scott and Jean were talking to Alec Stoll, the son of a rich doctor. Alec was one of the more down to earth one of his friends. He planned to study graphic arts and animation, but he and the Summers had begun talking about politics, which made sense as both Alec and his girlfriend Bolan Tarkoe's parents worked in Washington. Warren wondered briefly if Scott had positioned Jean's hand just right so that the light glanced off her ring and said "I'm married, hands off!" on purpose. As much as he respected his friend, he really couldn't put it past him.

He noticed that of all of them, Amara seemed to fit in the best. It made sense, as she had grown up in an extremely pampered environment by her country's standards. In fact, if Nova Roma had all the modern conveniences she probably would seem even richer and more spoiled than he was. Unfortunately, Bobby didn't seem too happy about that until Matt Wasserman began to talk sports with him.

Suddenly, an arm wrapped around his neck, "Hey, Worthington," Tabitha grinned. "How come all I hear is lousy classical music? You can't dance to that!"

"C'mon, Warren, crank it up!" Kurt insisted, wrapping an arm around his giggling date.

He blinked at Amanda and kissed her cheek. "I didn't know you were here."

"I'm leaving for Stanford in two days, so Kurt thought it would be nice if I came to the party. Last chance for a good time before I study day and night," she explained.

"Stanford? That's a great school! Congratulations."

"And she got a full scholarship," Kurt reminded her proudly, making Amanda blush.

Tabitha gave him another push, tapping her foot lightly. "Let's go, rich boy!" He walked over to the large sound system, and fiddled with it until a radio station came on playing dance music. Tabby went "Whoo!" and dragged him into the middle of the ballroom floor.

The rest of the couples assumed their places as well and with no date of her own, Kitty just grabbed Ray's arm and dragged him with her. Warren allowed himself to be passed around by the girls until he noticed that Rogue was standing to the side of the room.

Passing Jean back to her husband, he walked over and tapped her on the shoulder. "Enjoying yourself?"

"Uh…yeah. Food's really good," she smiled at him.

"You're a horrible liar."

"Kitty says the same thing. But then, she lives with me and claims Ah talk in mah sleep," Rogue shrugged. "Apparently I have dreams about being turned into a duck after being splashed with water."

The rich boy laughed and his feathers ruffled a bit under his jacket. "That's…very interesting. If it makes you feel any better, I used to have dreams that my teddy bear grew into a giant dressed like my old nanny and tried to sit on me. I was eight though, and I switched to stuffed dogs."

She chuckled, taking another sip of her pina coloda. "Well, that makes sense at least. Ah always hated most of my teachers, and nannies gotta come to your house and stuff, so that's gotta be a billion times worse."

"Tell me about it. Hey, I have something to show you. Will you come with me for a second?"

She nodded and he led her down the hall to an elevator. A few minutes later they were approached a large room with brilliant aromas wafting out of it. "Where are we?" She asked him.

"The kitchen. Hey, Antonio! Got the stuff for me?" Warren asked, sitting down at and island stool with Rogue.

The chef hit him on the head with a wooden spoon. "You don't interrupt someone in the middle of their craft, Master Warren. Of course I have it!"

He grinned, holding up his index and middle finger. "Two bowls, please."

Rogue looked at what was set in front of her and glanced at the rich boy carefully. "This ain't what Ah think it is, is it?"

"Well, we were talking about gumbo yesterday, so I had Antonia whip some up. Try it," he urged.

She slipped a spoon into the concoction, then brought it to her lips and swallowed. "Oh. My. Fucking. God." A look of astonishment crossed over her face. "This is…Ah've never tasted anything like this. Can Ah marry your cook?"

"He's taken. And she could totally take you."

"You do remember what happens when I take off these gloves, right?"

"When you're married to someone who cooks like that, you can take anyone," he pointed out.

Rogue nodded. "Gotcha. But still…this stuff is heavenly. Just spicy enough, you can taste everything, nothing is too overpowering. How does he do it?"

"A magician never reveals his secrets," Antonia winked.

"I still think he's a god, just posing as a human on Earth to satisfy the hunger of rich mutants," he whispered to her.

"Oh, yes, because the entire universe revolves around you," she smirked.

"It's never been proven otherwise," he shot back playfully. "Do you really think my parents would lie to me about that for twenty-one years?"

"Apparently so."

"Oh, just shut up and eat your gumbo."

They talked for a while and Rogue ingested two bowls of the gumbo. "Can I ask a favor of you?" Warren asked her gently.

"Sure, what is it?"

"My parents want me to go to this party next week. Some of their clients and co-workers will be there. I'm supposed to bring a date," he grumbled. "Come with me, please?"

"Why me? Take Jean."

"Oh, Scott would love that," he rolled his eyes sarcastically.

"Well…Amara's tons better at those things than Ah am," Rogue mumbled.

"Bobby wouldn't appreciate that. Why don't you want to go?"

She twirled her spoon through the soup in her bowl. "Ah'm not really the kind of person that goes to fancy things like that. You'll want to make a good impression."

"Not particularly. I just want someone to talk to. Most of the people there are going to be in their thirties and forties, besides the obligatory arm candy," he explained. "The only reason I have to go is because my parents are in Tahiti."

"Why not bring Kitty? She's so pretty and smart, she'll blow everyone away."

"I actually thought about that. But, ya see, Kitty would put me in the spotlight. All I want is someone who will sit with me in the back of the room and hang out with me." Warren sighed. "Look, if you don't want to go, you don't have to. I can ask Kitty. I just thought we might have fun."

For a while she just stared into her bowl. Finally, she muttered, "Ah don't have anything fancy."

"I could get something for you," He offered quickly. "That does mean you'll go with me, right?"

"Fine, fine. But only because Ah owe ya."

"Fair enough."

They went back to eating in silence before Rogue glanced up at the digital numbers on the microwave's clock. "Ah, shit. It's getting' late."

He stood up and waved to Antonio, who was working across the kitchen. "Pack some of the gumbo up for Rogue, please."

"Oh, Ah don't need any," she protested.

"Nonsense!" Antonio scoffed, fetching a large Tupperware container and emptying some of the pot's contents into it. "Eat and enjoy."

"Thanks," she replied honestly. "Ah really appreciate it."

"I'll call you with the details of the party," Warren offered as they walked back to the elevator.

"Alright, alright." They went upstairs and she sighed. "Ah don't feel like driving. How bad d'ya think it'd be if Ah let Tabitha drive?"

"Depends if Kitty's sober enough to phase."

"With mah luck we'd probably fuse molecules with the Empire State Building or somethin'. Oh well…" She took the keys out of her pocket. "See ya later, rich boy. Hey, Tabs!"

* * *

Meanwhile, Kitty was having an equally fabulous time. She'd danced with all of the single men there, as well as a lot of the not-so-single ones. This earned her several glares from the dates of Warren's friends, but she didn't give a damn. It'd been quite a while since she had actually had fun.

Bobby spun her around one more time as the music ended. Kitty pushed a lock of hair behind her ears as she made her way towards the refreshment table to get a bottle of water and some spinach dip.

"And what might your name be?"

She turned quickly to see a handsome guy behind her, immediately recognizing him as Riley Egan. He ran a hand through his blond hair as green eyes ran over her form again. "Kitty Pryde."

"Kitty, huh?" He stood closer to her, leaning against the table. She could feel the heat off his body and the slightest hint of alcohol on his breath, even though he didn't look drunk. Maybe a tad intoxicated though. "Why be a kitten when you can be a tiger?"

"Well, I dunno," she purred lightly. "But I think I realized what Riley Egan would prefer I be."

He grinned, taking this as a hint to continue. "You know, Warren's place is nice, but I've got this great yacht that I think is rather cozy. I'm not sure how into boats or marine life you are, but no one has been on it that hasn't enjoyed the experience."

"Kit, c'mon!" Rogue called from across the room.

"That's a really nice offer, Riley. Unfortunately, I have to go." His face fell so dramatically, she couldn't help pulling eyeliner out of her purse and writing her number on the palm with the black pencil. "But call me sometime."

He stared at the digits for a second before grinning at her. "You bet I will, Kitty Pryde."

She returned the smile before walking towards her roommates. "Bye, Mr. Egan."

Tabitha wrapped her arm around Kitty's and they as well as Rogue, Amara and Bobby made their way down to the car Mr. and Mrs. Pryde had gotten her when she graduated and finally gotten her license. "And what was that Pretty Kitty?"

"Nothing," she replied innocently, climbing into the passenger seat.

"So, how many guys asked you out, Pryde?" Rogue grinned wolfishly.

"Why, I don't think that's any of your business. But I promise I didn't give my number out to too many…"

"Oh, you can't talk, Ms. I-Snuck-Away-With-Warren," Tabitha told her. "What were you guys doing anyway?"

"We were talking about Southern food and he asked his chef to make me some gumbo." Kitty saw her smile down at the Tupperware.

"Awwww," Kitty and Tabitha chorused from the front.

"Shut up, both of ya."

"Can you guys keep it down?" Bobby requested. "Amara just fell asleep."

"Yeah, ok, let the princess sleep," Tabitha sighed. "So, how do you guys think we're doing so far here?"

"Not bad. We haven't completely destroyed anything yet," Kitty pointed out.

"Well," Bobby joked. "It's only a matter of time." Tab and Kitty joined in with his laughter.

"Maybe Ah'm bein' pessimistic," Rogue muttered. "But Ah think this is just the calming before the storm."

* * *

A/N: Well, I'm not terribly thrilled with this chapter. I guess it just didn't come out exactly the way I wanted it to. But if you notice that certain parts are a little different, that's because I've been writing this at about 10 different times.

So, I'm sure most of you thought I'd fell off the face of the Earth. But I didn't! All my shit just hit the fan. The wound from my surgery got infected and I was very sick because of that, then I had to do all my make up work, I got a cold (still have it, actually—Thanks Bruna), and my house flooded. So now I'm staying at my grandparents and looking for a new place to live. Luckily, school's over so I don't have to put up with that shit. Anyway, updates for this and the rest of my stories will be erratic for about the next month. Hopefully it will even out after that though, so please bear with me.

Questions, comments, reactions and reviews are greatly appreciated.

* * *

Review Responses:

Jott Luver: Of course Jean and Rogue are friends! They may not be friendly 100 percent of the time, but they're always friends.

Rogue14: Thank you!

Bored247: Yeah, I'd probably be lazy with my powers too. My operation didn't go so bad though, and I just slept and watched TV all day so thankfully I wasn't too bored.

GothikStrawberry: I'm planning a lot of different pairings for everyone (except Jean and Scott, but they're already married). Yeah, I'd love to see other lawyers react to the way Rogue dresses and talks. Muahahaha…

Slickboy444: Since I'm making the X-men the so-called NYC superheros, I probably won't have Spiderman, the Fantastic Four or the Avengers in it (especially since I probably couldn't write any of them too well and some of the Avengers are part of the Brotherhood). But they won't have an easy ride either. I'm going to do a lot of stuff for Jean and Scott, I can't wait to write that. I'm glad you like it.

Agent-G: I'll probably bring Amanda back eventually, but I really haven't decided yet. Kurt and Kitty will definitely have some different pairings. I won't promise now that they'll get together, because I still haven't decided.

Elizabeth: There will certainly more Jott later on. I love writing for them. Thank you for reading!

Showstopper: Well, yes, Kurt and Kitty has been done to death. Poor Kurt and his absence of good significant others. I'll figure something out though…

Simba317: I'm not a huge Romy fan, but I don't mind writing it. It's not something totally odd like…like…Scott and Ray. But Rogue'll be with a few different people. Thanks for reading.

Realtfarraige: I don't think anyone would be brave enough to let Bobby and Ray into a science lab. I can't believe they actually passed chemistry. That'd be so much fun.

LilyEvansPotter4456: I like that Scott and Jean are married too. I'm glad you like it.

Jenskott: I know a lot of facts about Betsy (including the fact that she's apparently dead right now. Not quite sure how that happened), but I would need to know her personality in order to write her. I'm going to get some comics with her in them, so maybe I can learn.

Darkstorm5000: Sam will definitely be back and Amanda most likely will be. Thanks for reading.

Diaz F: I haven't decided who I really truly want Rogue in. I'm sure I'll figure it out eventually though.

Mattb3671: Thanks for the constructive criticism for my action sequence. I'll try to put more detail next time.

Whylime: I'm so sorry it's taken me so long! I really and truly apologize! It's updated now!


	4. Competition

Bright Lights

An X-men Evolution fanfic by Lavender Gaia

Editing and Assistance by Laine

Chapter Four: Competition.

First draft: July 6, 2005

Disclaimer: I do not own X-men Evolution or any of its characters. They are all property of Marvel. I also don't own South Beach (it belongs to the City of Miami) or South Beach Modeling (since I don't think it exists). Alicia Roy and all other guests belong to themselves. I also do not own any DC Comic characters who cameo-ed in this chapter.

* * *

Jean Grey-Summers was enjoying the silence of her apartment. School didn't start for a few days and Scott said that he had other things to do, leaving her alone to spend her day relaxingly read magazines and browse through television that she didn't have to feel guilty watching. It also meant that she could watch Lifetime and other chick channels without Scott groaning.

Of course, as was common in her world, this bliss was interrupted by some banging on the door. "Who is it?" she sighed to the caller.

"Tabitha!" came the energetic reply.

The locks telekinetically undid themselves. "It's open," Jean told her without looking up from her September issue of Cosmopolitan.

The blonde bounced in and sat at the end of the couch where the redhead's feet were comfortable situated. "C'mon, get up. We're going shopping."

"Excuse me?"

"Ok, Amara and Bobby are out doing whatever couple thing they're doing, Sam's not back yet, I know your hubby is out doing something or other, Kitty and Rogue took Kurt out to cheer him up about Amanda, and Ray isn't the best person to go shopping with," she pointed out. "Plus, I thought we'd have fun."

"What makes you think I'd want to go? If you didn't notice, I'm quite comfy here on my couch." To emphasize her point, she lifted a cookie from a plate, dunked it in her milk and brought it to her mouth using only her mind.

"I'm not sure if you're being lazy or a show-off," Tabby rolled her eyes. "Besides the fact that we know both of those is my department, I have three words for you: Seven story Macy's."

Jean's eyes flicked down to what she was wearing: an old X-shirt and a pair of Scott's boxers. "Just let me change."

Tabitha grinned and took Jean's place on the couch. "Alright!"

A little while later she returned in a pair of jean Capri's and a light blue t-shirt, along with sneakers that were perfect for walking around and buying everything in sight. "Ready?"

"What's with the Kama Sutra?" Tabby asked, holding up the magazine. "Things already stale with O' Fearless Leader? You guys haven't been married that long. Though, most people might argue you've been married since you were like preteens."

"First of all, that's none of your business," she took it from her and put it back on the coffee table. "Second, it's Kitty's and she leant it to me because there was an article for newly-weds."

"Alright, alright, no need to get hostile about it. C'mon, let's go before the rest of Manhattan takes all the cute clothes we want." They took the subway over to the store (without getting lost, something Jean felt was better not to question her about). "Ok," Tabitha began as they entered the building. "I think we should start with clothes, follow with shoes, and finish up with make up and anything extra we're missing for our new apartments."

"Works for me," Jean nodded and they took the escalator to the women's department. "Whoa, there are a lot of people here."

Indeed there were. Most of them were women in their teens and twenties, gathered around a large platform and talking excitedly. "Don't these people have jobs?" Tabitha asked in annoyance. Grabbing the nearest clerk, she asked "Hi! My name is Emily!", "Hey, what's up with this? Some celebrity here or something?"

"You haven't heard?" Emily blinked in surprise. "South Beach Modeling is recruiting new people. Amateurs get a minute or two on stage. Third place wins $500, second place is $1,000 and the winner gets $5,000 and a modeling contract." She nodded at the girls' shocked expressions. "Yeah, I know. Registration ends in about ten minutes so if you're interested, I'd get over there."

"Thanks!" Tabby grinned, dragging the taller redhead over. "You're signing up."

"What? Why me? You sign up!"

"Jean, except for the fact that you're not skinny as a twig, you have the perfect body for modeling. Not to mention the fact that you're really pretty. Plus, if your popularity at Bayville was a hint at anything, you'd be great for the masses." She stood them in the relatively short line for a sign-up sheet. "I wouldn't last too long without blowing my top; you're better at keeping your temper."

"I don't have time to be a model," Jean protested. "I have school and a husband and I need to get a job—"

"This can be your job! Even if you don't get the first prize, a couple hundred bucks can't hurt, can it?" She smiled at the registration lady. "She's signing up."

"I need to see some I.D. to verify that you're at least sixteen," the woman requested. Jean pulled it out of her wallet and handed it over with a sigh. "Alright, Miss Grey. Just fill out these forms and you'll be ready to go."

"Thank you," Jean took a seat nearby and began working on the application.

A confused look came from Tabby's direction. "Excuse me if I'm wrong, but I coulda sworn you were Mrs. Summers now."

"It's Grey-Summers," she corrected her. "And I just haven't had a chance to get my license changed yet. No big deal."

"Oh. Um…ok." She waited as patiently as she could for her to finish filling out the papers. Tabitha decided that it was her job to scope out the competition. _Too short, too short, possibility, what did that person do to their hair? And someone should tell the lady next to her that zebra print pants don't work when you're wearing a multi-colored polka-dot shirt over it. Ew. _

"Done!" Jean announced, walking with her friend back to turn them in.

"Good. I only see about three or four people who are really competition. I'm sure you'll blow them out of the water though."

"I'm glad you're confident, at least," she smiled and handed the clipboard to the woman, whose name was Jodie.

"Thank you, Miss." Jodie smiled at her, then looked back and forth conspiratorially. "Listen, I'm not supposed to tell you this, but they probably won't need you for another hour or two. You look fine, but if you'd like to get something special to wear, you have plenty of time to shop for something to wear," she whispered, holding out number 63 to her.

"That sounds like a good idea!" Tabitha grinned. "C'mon, let's go make you hot. Thanks, Jodie!"

Jean allowed her to take her arm and drag her away. "Oh, I'm married so suddenly I'm not hot anymore?"

"Aw, that's not what I mean! Of course you're still hot. Siren's never lose that. It's just, now that you're married you have no one left to impress. Seriously, when was the last time you spent more than five minutes on your makeup?"

Her eyes trailed the ground sheepishly as Tabitha searched through the racks of women's clothing. "Scott always said he never cared about any of that."

"I'm sure he doesn't. I mean, the guy was like blind for a few years and he can't see in color anyway. I'm sure he just feels it's a perk that you're majorly gorgeous," the blonde bumped her hip with Jean's playfully. "But you still made yourself up anyway. Since you're married, you know you've got him for life and you don't feel the need anymore. True?"

"…True. Ok, so I haven't really cared too much about it," the redhead sighed. "It just hasn't been a priority anymore, with moving and starting school soon. For some reason, I still carry my makeup bag with me though. Must be habit."

Tabitha's face brightened up after seeing the blue and green Clinique bag in Jean's purse. "Alright! I guess I'll have to do your makeup after we find someone for you to wear."

They searched through different racks, looking for something that suited the occasion. "Can't I just wear what I have on?" Jean asked in exasperation after a while.

"Not until you try these on!" Tabby squealed, holding up a pair of leather pants. "You'd look awesome in these."

"In case you don't remember, I've done the leather before. Not exactly my style."

"You don't have to go fully dominatrix this time. I mean, you can't pull it off like I can. Or Rogue, you know, the two of us can really do the leather. Just try on the pants while I find you a shirt." It was a statement more than a request. There was no getting through to the hardheaded girl, so Jean retreated with the pants to the women's dressing rooms.

She had to admit, as she examined herself in the full-length mirror on the wall of the small cubicle, that they fit well. The pants hung low on her hips and somehow made her legs even appear longer. It was almost difficult to not get excited, and she managed not to be disgusted with herself that new—more daring—clothes gave her more energy than she's had for a while.

"Jean?" Tabby called through out the changing area. When the taller girl opened her door and walked out for inspection, a grin spread over her friend's face. "You have to get those. Even if you don't wear them for the modeling thing, those were made for you. I'd love to see Scott's face when he sees you wearing it."

"Ok, ok, I'll get them. Find anything else?" She took the sea-foam green shirt and added it to the outfit. It was a v-neck and Tabitha happily noted that somehow it drew attention to her eyes while highlighting just how fabulous that deep red hair was.

Jean pulled out her credit card and paid at a nearby register before going to a different floor to find shoes; both of them agreed that sneakers didn't really go too well. After grabbing a pair of heeled sandals that Jean knew she would wear again in the future, they headed back to the woman's department. She quickly changed and allowed Tabby to do her makeup with little protest.

Eventually, they returned back to the modeling area as number 59 walked across the stage. "You look awesome!" Jodie told her from the desk.

"Thanks," Jean grinned, feeling pretty good about herself.

"You'll be up in a few minutes, so if you just want to take a seat somewhere, they'll call you when they're ready," she explained, gesturing to some seats around.

She and Tabitha relaxed until the emcee announced, "Now is number 62, Miss Alicia Roy. Number 63 up next."

Jean approached the back of the stage as an African-American woman had her turn. She wasn't exactly sure what to do. Everyone she'd seen was trying to pout like models they'd seen on runways before. She wasn't exactly the pouty type. _I'll just smile, _she thought to herself. _Maybe they'll appreciate something different._

She smiled supportively as Alicia came back behind the curtain. "Good luck," the woman told her before exiting to the wait area.

"Now we have number 63, Miss Jean Grey. Number 64 up next." Jean took a deep breath and walked on to the stage. There was a shaky smile on her lips as she started down the runway. Out of the corner of her eye she caught Tabitha standing in the back, waving to catch her attention. A grin broke out on Jean's face and she winked at her blonde friend.

There were plenty of catcalls and wolf whistles from guys in the crowd that had stopped to watch the performances. And of course Tabby calling out "Jean, you're my hero!" didn't help stop her from laughing. After making her way to the end of the catwalk, she smiled at the judges and made her way back to the curtain.

She left the stage and went down the stairs only to be intercepted by Tabitha's hug. "You were awesome! I'm serious, Jean, all eyes were on you. I think a few guys passed out from dehydration because they were drooling so much!"

Another laugh erupted from Jean. "Thanks. Let's just sit down and wait, I don't think there are too many other people left."

The two other girls took their turns, and then one of the judges came on stage. "Hello, everyone. I'm Max Zimmerman, one of the agents from South Beach Modeling. I'd like to thank everyone for coming out here today and participating. You are all beautiful, and while you may not be exactly what we are looking for at the moment, if this is your dream I urge you to pursue it.

"The judges, which include myself, one of our photographers, and one of our current models, a Miss Kori Anders that you may recognize from our jean ads, are thrilled with today's turnout. After some deliberation, we are ready to announce our winners.

"Third place is Miss Aja Steiger. Second place is Miss Gabrielle Porter." Applause and cheers sounded through the room and the two girls took their checks happily. "And the winner of the $5,000 and our newest model is Miss Jean Grey!"

The telepath blinked in surprise as Tabby hugged her tightly, screaming "YES!" In a daze, she approached the stage, hardly hearing the appreciation the crowd had for her, as well as Tabitha's proud call of "That's my girl!"

"Congratulations, Miss Gray," Max Zimmerman told her.

"Um, wow, thank you. I really wasn't expecting this," she admitted.

"You're a beautiful woman, and your smile is sexy and likeable at the same time. Here, why don't' I introduce you to one of our photographers. Donna, can you come here?" He waved to a woman who looked lovely enough to be a model herself. Black hair curled lightly against her back and her smile reached blue eyes. "This is Donna Troy."

"It's nice to meet you, Miss Grey," Donna shook her hand. "I hope we can work together often."

"Me too," Jean smiled. The photographer had an easy-going air about her, which Jean appreciated. She felt automatically that she'd be easy to work with.

The other model approached her, grinning widely at her. "Hello, new friend! I am Kori Anders!"

Kori was incredibly tall, with jade green eyes and a long, thick mane of red curls. Her golden skin glowed and the jeans she made famous hugged curves even she could be envious of. "Um, hi. It's nice to meet you."

"It is always pleasurable to make a new acquaintance!" Kori beamed at her.

"Listen, Miss Grey, how about we meet on Friday and discuss a contract and such over lunch?" Max suggested. "There are plenty of good restaurants by our office."

"That sounds great," she answered, watching as he wrote down directions to his office on the back of a business card.

"It'll be a pleasure doing business with you, Miss Grey. Excuse me for a moment," He nodded a good-bye to her, then went to talk to a Macy's assistant who was waving to him.

Tabitha squealed and hopped up on the stage, giving her another hug. "This is amazing, Jean!" She grinned proudly. "I know a supermodel."

"I'm not a supermodel yet. I haven't even done any work. But Friday I'm meeting with them to go over a contract." She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "Wow. It's all going so fast."

"But that's a good thing, right? You wanted a job and how cool would it be to tell people you're a genetic researcher who does some modeling on the side?" the blonde elbowed her in the side playfully.

"Yeah, yeah, ok." Jean grinned. "Just promise me something ok? Don't tell anyone. Especially Scott."

"What? Why not?" She cocked her head to the side, staring at her friend questioningly.

"I'll tell them in my own time. Let's just keep this a secret between us for now, ok?" Green eyes pleaded with blue ones until Tabby looked away with a sigh.

"Alright, I won't tell them. I always thought that honesty was the basis for a good marriage though. Not that my parents are any example," she sighed. "But, ok, whatever. I won't tell. C'mon, let's go get me something to wear, supermodel!"

Tabitha started off towards a large rack of pants. Jean checked the business card in her hand one last time before slipping it in her purse and following her friend.

* * *

The treadmill slowed to a stop and Scott Summers wiped off the sweat that had accumulated on his forehead. He wondered vaguely whether or not the state-of-the-art gym had any part of Xavier deciding that this was the perfect building for them. After seeing that his lovely wife wasn't home, he'd decided to try it out. While it was no Danger Room, it would still do to keep them all in shape.

He made his way to the elevator, planning on taking a shower to wash the day's work away. Automatically, he reached for the doorknob before remembering he'd locked it. It was open though and the handle turned in his grip. Fear shot through him until he realized that his Jean had probably come home.

There she was, leaning against the kitchen island, flipping through a magazine and eating cherries. His eyebrows raised above his glasses as he took in her leather pants. "Hey, honey."

She looked over at him with a grin and a sparkle in her eyes. "Hi!" Jean kissed him lightly; she tasted sweeter than usual, thanks to the berries. "Working out?"

"The gym is really nice," he responded with a nod. "You should come down with me next time. Not that you really need to work on your body," he continued quickly, eyeing her legs appreciatively. "New outfit?"

"Tabby and I went shopping," she informed him, accompanying it with another kiss.

"Well, I think you look awesome. I'm sure every guy there was staring at you." His strong arms wrapped around her waist.

"Yeah, well, I'm married now. And my husband is really cute," she grinned at him.

"You don't say? What a coincidence, because I happen to have an extremely gorgeous wife."

"Really now?" He kissed her again, hearing her giggles as his lips trailed over her neck. She took his hand and led him to the new couch, where she then settled into her husbands lap and resumed kissing him.

Later on, they snuggled together on their couch, flipping through the channels. Scott's arm was wrapped around her waist lightly. "I love you, Jean."

"I love you too, Scott," she turned her head to smile at him before looking back at the television. Her frowned at the back of her head; the tone of her voice sounded as if she had just confessed a heinous sin to him, and wanted to prove that she cared for him. But as she nuzzled closer, he decided to let it go. It could wait another day. After all, they had their whole lives together.

* * *

A/N: I'm so sorry this took so long. I've been so busy lately. I moved and my new place was leaking from the moment we moved in and just recently my mother's best friend died. Everything's been kind of messed up lately. This just isn't my summer.

I hope everyone liked the JOTT in this chapter! And if you are aware of the DC comic world, you may have noticed some cameos. They aren't scheduled to become main characters now, but if people want them and the rest of their team in it, I'll see what I can do.

Questions, comments, reactions and reviews are greatly appreciated.

* * *

Review Responses:

Simba317: I'm so glad you liked the chapter. I'm not sure if the real Riley was like that, I haven't seen him in years, but he was definitely going that way. We will see more of him in the future though.

Mattb3671: I'm happy you liked the Rogue/Warren. Thank you for reading!

Whylime: Thank you for your concern. I tried to update as soon as possible and I'll do the same in the future (hopefully quicker though).

Wen1: I will, thanks!

Jott luver: Well, I always thought that while they fight occasionally, Jean and Rogue are friends. Not best friends, per say, but definitely more than casual acquaintances or enemies.

Raniatlw: Everything will go well eventually, I'm sure. I'm glad you like the Rogue with Warren, I'll try to put more in future chapters.

Diaz F: I actually didn't come up with Rogue's dream…I stole it from a series called Ranma ½ by Rumiko Takahashi. A friend of mine did have a dream like that once though.

Telepathic Angel: Well, here's your JOTT! There will be more, they're one of my favorite couples.

Jenskott: I have to wonder if everyone wishing me well is just making everything worse. Thank you for your kind words though. Rogue and Warren are a strange pair, but I like to rearrange couples as long as they don't mess with major canon (like Jean and Scott).

Agent-G: Well, the only other ones I can think of in NY are Spiderman and Matt Murdock. Unfortunately, as I know pretty much nothing about either of them besides the movies, it would probably ruin their characters to have me write for them. I added some non-Marvel New York superheroes in this chapter, but unless I brush up on my Spiderman comics sometimes in the future, I'd be worried about writing him horribly and I have too much respect to Jack Kirby for that. I'm sorry I gave you the impression that I definitely wasn't going to include Kurtty. At that time I hadn't decided, but I'm pretty sure what I'm going to do now, and there's a good chance the couple will be included.

Elizabeth: I'm glad you like Rogue with Warren and I hope you keep reading!

Realtfarraige: I'm enjoying writing the normal chapters, but they should be starting college by the next chapter. Let's see how they handle all that. Thank you for reviewing.

Slickboy444: Kurt's friends are doing the best they can to help him through this rough transition and I'll be pointing that out more later on. I'm so happy you like Bobby and Amara; I think I may be the only person who writes for them, and I'm glad to see others enjoying the pair I love so much.

DOJ: Lance broke up with Kitty before she moved to New York. Since that's all Kitty knows right now (besides the deep, scarring details) I won't go into it right now, but I can assure you that Lance will come in later. Gotta love the Eager Puppy with his Kitty cat.

Gothik Strawberry: I did find a new place, thank you for your kind wishes. I'm glad you liked the parts with Rogue and Warren. I hope you keep reading.

Darkstorm5000: So many people enjoy Rogue with Warren. I'm thrilled by it and I'm glad you like it as well. I'll keep trying to update as soon as I can.

Ingrid: I don't think it's bad that you're obsessed with Jott. I am too, which is why I love to write them so much. I hope you like that part of this chapter.

LilyEvansPotter4456: I'm happy you like it. Thank you for reading.

I Heart the Distillers: I will be bringing in not only other people from the show, but also comic characters. There are going to be a LOT of pairings, so hopefully I'll be able to hit on everyone's favorite. I hope you like this chapter.


	5. Cold as Ice

Bright Lights

An X-men Evolution fanfic by Lavender Gaia

Editing by No One.

Assistance by Laine

Chapter Five: Cold as Ice

First draft: August 13, 2005

Disclaimer: I do not own X-men Evolution or any of its characters. They are all property of Marvel. I still don't own Riley Egan and I don't own Chandler either. They belong to themselves and to any devils who they may have sold their souls to at one point or another.

* * *

"Alright, class dismissed." 

Kitty picked up her messenger back, putting it on her shoulder happily. She'd really enjoyed her first programming class, which was a good thing, as it was very much needed in her major. Now she could grab something to eat and check out the campus before her last class at five.

"Hey, Pryde! Pryde!"

She turned in surprise; who would be looking for her now? Scanning the hallway, she saw an arm waving high in the air, followed by a blond head. "Oh, my god!" Kitty exclaimed happily. "Doug!" He reached her and she threw her arms around his neck. "Doug Ramsey? What are you doing here? I thought you were going to MIT!"

"Chance of plans," he grinned familiarly. "Apparently I'm not the only one. I thought you were going back to Chicago."

"Well, everyone else was coming here, and the Professor secured an apartment for me." She stared at the ground for a moment. "My parents are getting divorced, I didn't want to be in their way."

He nodded understandingly. "I'm sorry about that."

"It's been going on for a while. I'm almost used to it. But what about you, shouldn't you be in Massachusetts?" Kitty pushed a lock of hair behind her ear.

"Actually, my mom got sick over the summer. I decided to go here since it's closer to home and I can visit her more often," Doug explained.

"Oh, I'm so sorry! Is she going to be ok?"

"Hopefully." He forced a smile and ran a hand through his sandy blond hair. "Listen, I have to get to another class, but I'd love if we could get together sometime."

"Me too." She grinned at him and pulled a piece of paper out of her bag to write on. "This is my cell number and home number. I keep my phone on vibrate during classes and I live with some girls from the Institute. If Tabby answers, don't expect her to take a message. The rest of the girls are pretty responsible though."

"Great. I'll give you a call later." He kissed her cheek lightly. "Bye, Kitty!"

"See ya, Doug." Humming lightly to herself, she continued to the cafeteria until her phone vibrated against her hip. She looked at the number on the face and answered it, though it was unfamiliar. "Hello?"

"Is this Kitty Pryde?"

"Yes, who is this?"

"It's Riley Egan," a satisfied voice at the other end said.

"Oh, hey," she grinned at the mouthpiece. "So you, like, finally decided to call."

"Well, I didn't want to seem too desperate," he answered. "I haven't washed my hand since you put your number on it though, if it makes you feel any better."

It was the right thing to say. "I'm gonna pretend you're usually more hygienically focused. So did you call just to say hello?"

"Actually, no. I wanted to know if you were busy this Friday. Because if you're not I'd love for us to go out. Say seven?"

Kitty smiled again. "That sounds great. Where are we going?"

He chuckled. "If I told you, that would just ruin the surprise. But, wear something like you wore to Warren's, if you could."

_Semi-fancy, then, _Kitty thought to herself as she gave him directions to her apartment. "I'll see you Friday at seven."

"Bye, pretty Kitty," Riley hung up and she felt a distinct tug at her heartstrings. No one had called her pretty Kitty since Lance. It didn't feel right hearing someone else say it.

Her stomach rumbled in protest of just standing there and she got a salad from the dining hall and slid into a seat across from Amara. The princess looked up and smiled at her. "Hey, Kitty!"

"I'm totally glad you're here," Kitty confided in her. "I didn't want to eat alone."

"Bobby and I are supposed to do something in a few minutes, so I told him I'd grab something to eat and wait here for him. So, how was your last class?" she broke off a piece of her muffin and ate it happily.

"Guess who just called me," Shadowcat requested, grinning like the cat who at the canary.

Amara was intrigued. "Who?"

"Riley Egan!"

"No way. That's really great!" she reached across the table and squeezed Kitty's hand affectionately.

"What's really great?" Bobby asked, sliding next to Amara and kissing her cheek. "Hey, Princess, hey, Kitty."

"I have a date with Riley Egan this weekend." She picked a fry off of the small box in front of Amara and bit into it giddily.

"Um…yay?" He glanced at Amara, who nodded a confirmation. "Good for you. Ready to go, 'Mara?"

She nodded and stood up, pushing her dark hair behind her shoulders. "As ready as I'll ever be. We have a lunch date, so here," she pushed the fries towards her friend. "I'll see you at home later?"

"Will do!" Kitty dug happily into the fries as the happy couple walked out.

Bobby and Amara hopped on the subway going home. Luckily, neither of them had afternoon classes that day so because of their extremely hectic lives, they'd decided to spend the afternoon together. They were going home to freshen up after a hectic day of morning classes.

"Your place or mine?" She asked as they stepped on the elevator and pushed the button for the eighth floor.

"Might as well do mine first, I know you'll take forever." He teased lightly, giving her a small peck on the lips when she pouted in mock hurt.

"Fine, fine," she hugged him, then walked down the hall to his apartment, giggling as he placed light kisses on her neck. Bobby slid his key in the doorknob and the two lovebirds stumbled into the living room.

Sam glanced over at them from the couch. "Hey, ya'll."

The pair stopped dead. "Oh, hey, Sam." Amara unconsciously ran a hand through her hair, blushing. "We didn't think anyone was home…"

"Apparently," he smirked.

"What are you doing here, anyway?" Bobby sat in one of their chairs and pulled his girlfriend comfortably on his lap.

"Um…Well, Ah kinda have something to talk to ya about, Bobby." Sam looked nervously at his best friend.

Amara stood up. "This seems like a roommate thing. Maybe I should leave."

"Please don't!" Sam pleaded. Bobby shot his best friend a look; he had suspicions that Sam (as well as the rest of the New Mutant boys) had a crush on Amara, but he thought he'd gotten over it when they'd started going out. Sam looked down at the floor and continued, "If you're here, he might not yell as much."

"I don't yell," Bobby blinked. "Since when do I yell? What do I have to yell about?"

"What's going on, Sam?" Amara reached over and squeezed his hand.

"Bobby, Ah'm…Ah'm not goin' to college," Sam spat out. "Ah mean, Ah am, just…just not right now."

There was silence until Ice Man slowly said, "What do you mean you're not going to college?"

"Ah will be, eventually. It's just…When Ah went with Mr. Logan to race motocross it felt so right. And Ah won, Bobby, against all these professionals. Four companies wanted to sign me, so Ah agreed to go with one of them," he finally said quickly, then finally paused to take a breath.

His friends stared at him for a second. "You're going to college," Bobby said finally, as if the matter weren't up for discussion.

Sam sighed. "Bob, Ah…"

"You can't not go to college!"

"Ah will! Just not right away. Ah can earn money doing this. Money for college so the Professor doesn't have to pay. And Ah can send some home to my ma and brothers and sisters," he looked at the ground before refocusing on his friend. "You know how much they need it."

"More than you need an education?" Bobby argued. "You can send them plenty of money after you get a degree and a job that doesn't involve almost killing yourself several times a day!"

"Oh, like you're dream to be an X-man for the rest of your life is so safe!" Sam countered quickly.

Amara glanced at her boyfriend sharply, watching as his face slowly turned red from anger. He'd never told her that, but now wasn't the time to bring it up. She stood between the two. "Listen, I think you both need to cool down."

"I agree!" Bobby said, shooting a sheet of ice at Sam, who just dodged it.

"Robert Drake!" Amara screamed at him, astonished. "We're leaving. Now."

He glared at her as well. "Don't go all royal on me, Amara. You can't kick me out of my own apartment."

"Well, if you don't leave with me right now, I can assure you that I won't be back in this apartment." She crossed her arms over her chest.

The hardened face softened in defeat. "Fine." He turned to Sam. "We'll talk later."

"After he's learned that discussing a topic and yelling are two different things," Amara pushed her boyfriend towards the door. "I'll see you later, Sam." She continued out into the hallway and closed the door behind them before stalking off towards her apartment. "I really can't believe you!"

"You can't believe me?" Bobby sat on her couch as Amara went into her room. "He's the one not going to college?"

She poked her head out of her room and he tried to ignore the bra strap on her visible shoulder. "What if I didn't go to college?"

He blinked and walked over as she slipped back into her room. "What do you mean?"

"Well, would you be so upset if I decided not to go to college?" She bent over to look through a dresser drawer, grumbling, "I hope Tabitha isn't wearing my new black skirt…"

"I wouldn't mind too much if you weren't wearing your black skirt," he grinned.

She threw a pair of socks at his head. "Knock it off, we're trying to talk about something serious here."

"Alright, alright," He put the socks back in her drawer and sat on her bed, which was the one she'd brought from the Institute and was an exact replica of the one from Nova Roma. "I know I'd be upset if you wanted to go away. You aren't going to, are you?"

"Of course not," she gave up searching for the skirt and sat between his open legs, resting her back against his chest. "But that's not the point."

"I know." He wrapped his arms around her waist and squeezed lightly. "I don't think I would be mad if you didn't go to college."

"So what's the big difference between me and Sam?"

He rested his chin on her shoulder and lightly kissed her cheek before answering. "Because…," he sighed, "One day you're going to go back home and rule your country. It's really not something that you need a college education for."

She heard the change in his voice and felt his arms hold her tighter. "I know, sweetie." It was hard for both of them to think that one day she was going to have to go back to Nova Roma and help her father, perhaps even take over the government herself. "But how is that different from what Sam's doing?"

Bobby stroked her arm lightly. "Because motocross is a hobby; ruling countries isn't! He could still do that on weekends and vacations. This is a chance that he never thought he would have. And now he's just going to pass it by to make a few bucks?"

"I think he's doing the right thing," Amara whispered.

He stopped stroking her arm. "What?"

"Well, it's just that I don't remember you freaking out when Jean and Scott and Rogue and Kurt and Kitty waited to go to school," she got off her bed and started running a brush through her hair, watching his reaction in the mirror.

"But they weren't gallivanting around bike riding."

"Of course not, they were just fighting Apocalypse, and hanging out in the Danger Room. And when they weren't sitting on the couch, they were making our lives miserable." She sighed and boosted herself up to sit on the edge of the dresser. "Sometimes people just aren't ready to go to college right away. Let him have his fun now and buckle down later."

"Why can't he have fun at college, 'Mar?"

She shrugged, swinging her legs so that her heels bounced against the cherry wood. "To me, Sam always seemed like the kind of person who would stay in one place for the rest of his life if it would suit him. And in the past few years, he's been uprooted from his home and his whole family to live in a place where he doesn't know anyone and now college, which is daunting by itself. Maybe he's not ready to settle down again."

"Do you think he's worried about something? He doesn't want to be used to this and then have to leave again?" Bobby suggested.

"I never thought about that. But you know him better than I do."

He leaned back against her pillows, covered his face with his hands and sighed. "So what do I do now?"

"Well, first of all, we should go get something to eat," she got off the dresser and kneeled on the edge of her bed, kissing him lightly. "Then you should tell him that you respect his decision even though you'll miss him like hell and won't be able to wait till he comes back."

He pulled her closer for another kiss. "How'd I get so lucky to get you?"

"Fate, of course," she smiled as he nuzzled her neck. "How else would a girl from Nova Roma and a boy from New York get together?"

"Very good point." They kissed again and Bobby rubbed her back. He kissed down her neck, making her purr lightly. She recaptured his lips and his hands stroked the skin of her hips as her shirt lifted up a bit.

She broke away as they both realize that his left hand was on her bra strap. "I'm sorry," he apologized quickly. "I just got caught up in the moment."

"It's ok, so did I," Amara sat up and adjusted her shirt. "So, let's go grab something to eat."

After a late lunch in a nearby restaurant, they walked back hand in hand until something caught the princess's eye. "Bobby, can we get some ice cream?"

"Course, babe. Ice cream's my thing," he opened the door and Amara went to look at the menu on the wall. A dozen people were in there already, so they waited until the crowd parted.

The exhausted server looked at them. "Welcome to Ice Palace, how can I help you?" he asked in a monotone voice, turning his head to yawn.

"I'll have a banana split," Amara said, licking her lips, "With chocolate chip cookie dough and Reese's pieces and sprinkles and hot fudge and a cherry."

The man's face fell at the daunting task of doing more than scooping ice cream on to a waffle cone. "…right. And you?"

Bobby smiled sympathetically. "I'll just have some mint chocolate chip."

He nodded, and went to get the ice cream. "Will there be anything else?" He made Bobby's first, since it was easiest.

"And a pint of butter pecan." Amara took a container out of the freezer and put it next to the register. "As a peace offering for Sam."

"Hey, uh, Chandler," Bobby nodded and read the man's nametag, "Do you need any help working here? You seem kind of swamped."

He nodded, pushing his brown hair back from his face and ringing up the total. "They just opened a new elementary school down the street and a bus stop on the corner. More customers every day but no one's applying."

Bobby shrugged. "I'll do it." Before his girlfriend could say anything, he continued, "Look, I know you said I couldn't make snow cones for a living, but you never said anything about ice cream."

"Have you ever been convicted of a felony?" Chandler asked him.

"Um…no."

"You're hired. There are forms over there," He pointed to the other side of the store and handed him his change.

Amara looked at him doubtfully. "I'm not sure if this is such a good idea, Bobby. I mean, we just started school, and…"

"Look on the bright side, Amara!" Bobby wrapped an arm around her waist. "You and the rest of the girls will get the employee discount." He glanced at Chandler as if waiting for concurrence.

The princess looked at the ice cream vendor. "There's an employee discount?"

"Yep. The employee discount of free."

Amara fished something out of her purse and held it out to Bobby. "Here's a pen."

He chuckled and kissed his girlfriend's forehead, before signing the papers. Amara sat at one of the spinning bar chairs, digging into her sundae happily. After getting an application, Bobby sat next to her, filling in the answers and watching her out of the corner of his eye. "You're so cute."

"Well, thank you," she gave him a sugary kiss.

After the couple had finished, they waved goodbye to Chandler and continued towards their apartments. Bobby opened his front door hesitantly. Sam was sitting on the couch watching TV, but looked up warily as the pair came in. "…hey."

"I came to apologize," Bobby told him, holding out the ice cream. "Truce?"

Sam's eyes lit up at the pint of Old Fashioned Butter Pecan. "All is forgiven."

"Tell us more about this," Amara requested, sitting next to him on the couch.

"Actually, they made a tape of one of the races. Ah can show it to you." When they nodded their consent, Sam went to his room and retrieved it, slipping it into the VCR.

The opening shot was the racers lining up at the starting gate. When the gates went down, Sam quickly sped ahead from the rest of the group, taking an early lead. Number 23 could be seen ahead at all times and his friends marveled at the way he took the turns and did stunts during the jumps.

"You look like you're having a kick ass time," Bobby commented, impressed.

"It's so awesome to be out there. Like cannonball-ing, but with more control and no one hating you for doing it," he explained.

Amara cheered as Sam passed the finish line in first place. "You're amazing!" she congratulated him with a kiss on the cheek. "I'm still sad you're going to be leaving though. When are you going?"

"Actually, they want me to be at their training center on Monday," he explained, downcast. "Ah'll miss you guys too, but Ah can't just give up this chance."

Amara and Sam both looked at Bobby, waiting for a reaction. The Ice Man shrugged. "Doesn't give us too much time to play for you're goodbye party, but you'll just have to live with that."

The blond looked at him gratefully as Amara pulled them into a group hug. "And I'll be back for most holidays and week breaks here and there."

Bobby hugged them both in return, and joked about nothing of consequence as he tried to ignore the rush that his life was slowly but surely falling apart.

* * *

A/N: I'm so sorry this has taken so long. I had major writers block but I really felt that because of the extra time I took this came out so much better than I ever thought it would. So Sam will be going away for a while, but he'll be back with a few surprises in store. All my motocross knowledge comes from the Disney Channel movie and the motocross game at Game Works. After playing that, I have SO much more respect for Sam. 

You can help get the next chapter out sooner! I have three other fics going on at the moment as well as school, but a great way of helping is for you to say in your review which character you'd most like to read about next. Since I am working with so many, as long as the readers choice goes along with the current plots, I'll be more than happy to do that.

Questions, comments, reactions and reviews are greatly appreciated.

* * *

Review Responses: 

Mattb3671: Well, Jean is a chick, though I wouldn't recommend calling her that to her face…Thank you for reading!

Wen1: I'm not sure if it was broadcasted all over the world, but this certain company doesn't have the same prejudice against different people as the rest of the world does. And just because they may have seen it on the news once a few years ago (It's been years since the end of the series, not just DOR) doesn't mean they'll necessarily remember.

Slickboy444: Well, here's a chapter for Bobby and Amara. And I openly promise now that you will be seeing some Kurtty later on in this fic. I'm glad that you caught my Teen Titan's hints. I'm hoping to be using them as supporting characters in some aspects later, I'm glad someone knows what I'm talking about.

Simba317: I know it's taking me forever to get this out. I urge you to blame my beta for not being around poke me into writing enough. I love writing for Tabby, she's so much fun. Without her, I think this would lack a lot of the energy it needs and I might have to resort to making Kitty sound like a ditz or Bobby being nothing but a practical joker. Tabby adds that extra aspect.

Telepathic Angel: I'm very glad you like it so much. Scott will be finding out eventually, but I'm not going to give out all the details quite yet.

Diaz F: Well, I'm not sure "Trouble" is the right word, but it's definitely going to stir things up a bit. I hope you like this chapter.

Jacx: I'm glad you like it. Thank you for reviewing.

Jenskott: I'm happy you enjoyed the jott. Yes, Jean's life is going to be a tad bit hectic soon. We'll have to see how she handles it.

Starrydreamz: Yes, I'll spill a little, Lance is going to be in here later. The rest of the Brotherhood will too, so if you want to see them feel free to keep reading until they come in.

Amazing redd phoenix: Hi, Ingrid! I'm so happy you loved the jott. I enjoy writing it a lot. It is never a bad thing to obsess over Jott. It's perfectly natural in my opinion. I'll be writing more about them soon, so enjoy this for now.

Elizabeth: Scott's reaction will be coming eventually. I hope you liked this chapter, thank you for reviewing.

Jott luver: Yes, Tabby can be very cute. Or annoying, as the case may be. Jean will be a model as of Friday (fic time, of course). I hope you'll read it.

Realtfarraige: I love Tabby, she's one of my favorite characters. And I can totally imagine Scott setting up objects on his porch to blast with his eyes since he has no danger room. Of course, he might need to shoot something after he finds out about Jean.

GothikStrawberry: Writing fluff is very easy when it comes to JOTT fluff. It just flows so nicely. I'm happy you like my version of Tabby. I agree she's really hard to keep in character and I do try my best. I never really agreed with anyone who thought she was a slut, or hated Jean or anything of that sort.

Rogue14: Well, "Married" is going to make more of a conflict than "Mutant", I assure you. I hope you keep reading.

DOJ: Yes, it's the same Donna that's in Wishful Thinking. The comic Titans (who are in this fic) were originally based in New York City and Donna was a photographer. Of course, I was too lazy to get up and actually check the agency it was (turns out to be Silver Fox or whatever), so I made up my own. And whether or not Jean's modeling is a bad thing is really in the eye of the beholder, isn't it?

Darkstorm5000: I like writing nice scenes with Tabs and Jean, since most writers either neglect their friendship or make them enemies. Thank you for reviewing.

Lil Jean: There will be tons more Jott later and I promise now that the modeling is the least of their worries in this story. I hope you keep reading.


	6. Hope

Bright Lights

An X-men: Evolution fanfic by Lavender Gaia

Editing and Assistance by Lavender Gaia so you guys don't have to wait anymore.

Chapter Six: Hope

First draft: September 18, 2005

Disclaimer: I do not own X-men Evolution or any of its characters. They are all property of Marvel.

Dedicated to Travis for cheering me up when I was lonely and giving me strength to finish this.

* * *

Ray smirked as he entered the Ice Palace, Kurt in tow behind him. "Hey, you have a camera?" 

The blue boy shook his head. "No, why?"

"Because I need to get a shot of Drake in that hat."

It was true. Bobby was forced to wear the uniform, which included a folded white hat. Still, he looked at home there. Ray had always known that Bobby was a people person—a lot more than he was at least—and from the looks of it, he liked making the little kids happy.

Kurt grinned and walked over to the counter. "Hey, Mister, can I have an ice cream cone?"

Bobby looked over from where he was mixing a strawberry milkshake. "Oh, hey, guys! What's up?"

"We just finished buying all the stuff for Sam's party and dropping it off at the girls' place. Now, tell us again why we bought all the stuff on your list?" Ray asked.

He pretended to be offended. "Because, my boy, I've been here, slaving over a cold cone and trying to earn money for us to live off of!" Bobby handed the milkshake over the counter to the woman who had asked for it. "Here you are, ma'am. Have a nice day!"

Ray and Kurt exchanged a look. "Ja, you know, that might work if the Professor didn't pay for everything."

"Well, Amara likes going out and she's used to pretty things. And isn't she worth it?" He smiled at them, but his eyes said, 'Agree with me or I'll freeze you in your sleep.'

"Of course," Ray rolled his eyes. "We all love Amara. In a completely platonic way, of course. But you could have done your own errands."

He shrugged. "Alright, alright. How about I get you guys some ice cream instead? We're starting to slow down and I'll just take my break now. Whatcha guys want?"

"I'll take some Rocky Road!" Kurt requested, taking a seat at a nearby table.

"You got mint chocolate chip?" Ray smiled.

"You bet. Just give me a sec." Bobby went to fill their orders and after telling his fellow worker that he was going on the break, he sat down with his friends. "So you guys got everything on the list?"

"Yes, everything. Stop worrying. It's all gonna go fine and Sam'll go off to get rich and famous remembering all us little people." Ray leaned back in his chair and stretched. "Lucky man, doesn't have to go to college anymore."

Bobby glanced over at him. "Sam's going back. What problem do you have with college anyway?"

Ray shrugged. "It's school. I hated high school. And middle school. Now elementary wasn't so bad, we got naps. But whatever." He dug a spoon into his ice cream.

"I'm enjoying it!" Kurt said excitedly. "Rogue and I are taking German together and I like teaching her stuff. In fact, I'm supposed to go help her with the reading this weekend."

"Doesn't she have a date with Warren tonight?" Berzerker asked.

Bobby nodded. "Yeah, and Kitty has a date with that Riley Egan guy tomorrow." Kurt jabbed his spoon into the Rocky Road. "You ok with that, elf?"

"Yeah, I just…Never thought he was her type. I don't want her to get hurt." He sighed. "I miss Amanda. But I heard from her the other day, and she's doing really well."

"At least be glad you had a girlfriend," Ray groaned. "Ice Man took the only New Mutant girl that decided to stick around."

"Oh, that reminds me, Amara told me the funniest thing the other day," Bobby began, only stopping when his roommates glared at him. "What? Just because your love lives suck doesn't mean I can't be happy!"

Kurt glanced at Ray, then pushed Bobby back towards the counter. "We think you need to get back to work. Your girlfriend won't be too happy if you get fired and can't buy her all those nice things that she can afford on her own, right?"

Bobby picked up their ice cream bowls whether they were finished or not. "The green of envy doesn't look good on either of you."

The two rolled their eyes at him and Ray even threw a tossed up napkin at their friend before leaving to go back to the apartment. When they got off the elevator at the eighth floor, Kurt saw a service man standing in front of the girls' apartment. "Can I help you?" he offered.

"Um, only if you're Rogue," the delivery man read off the address tag.

"Actually, I'm her brother. I have a key and can put whatever it is in her apartment." He brandished his key ring helpfully.

The man nodded. "Ok, just sign here." Kurt took the pen and scribbled a few lines on the electronic pad; those things never cared what you put anyway. "Have a nice day, sir."

"Ja, you too!" The elf opened the door to his sister's apartment, calling out, "Hello? Is anyone home?"

Rogue walked out of the bathroom towel-drying her hair. "Oh, hey. Ah thought there was someone at the door."

"You have a package," he told her, putting the large box on the coffee table in front of her.

She frowned at it. "What is it?"

Kurt shrugged, sitting on one of their chairs. "Open it and find out."

Quickly, she ripped off the brown paper revealing only a white box underneath. She pulled off the top and her jaw dropped at the contents. It was a gorgeous deep purple dress. It was long enough to cover her arms and legs and still be classy. Matching heels and gloves were in the bottom along with a note. She pulled it out and read it aloud, "Rogue—I promised you a dress. I do hope you like it. If the measurements aren't correct, blame Kitty, I got them from her. See you later, Warren."

"Wow," Kurt blinked, taking it all in. "That was really nice of him."

"Yeah…it was." Rogue's eyes swept over the dress again, wondering if it was really ok to accept such an expensive gift. She doubted she'd ever owned anything like this before.

"So?" Her brother prompted. "Aren't you going to go put it on?"

After a moment's hesitation, she nodded and headed to the room she shared with Kitty. "I'll be back in a second." Closing the door behind her, Rogue shed her old bathrobe and unzipped the back of the dress, stepping into it as carefully as possible.

It fit like a glove. Apparently, Kitty had done a great job of getting her exact measurements, so much that Rogue wondered what had gone on in her sleep. The material hugged her curves, the see-through gauze of the sleeves showing off her strong arms while the gloves looked elegant. It even seemed to give her more cleavage than usual. While Rogue knew that she wasn't a drop-dead gorgeous beauty like Jean, her heart swelled in relief that she did the dress justice.

Gingerly, she walked back into the living room. "So how does it look?"

Kurt looked over from where he had been raiding the fridge. "Oh, Rogue, you look beautiful!" he told her sincerely. "That dress is perfect for you."

"Ah do like it," she admitted, admiring herself in the gilded mirror above the mantle of the fireplace.

"You know what I have to do, right?" He grabbed the disposable camera Tabitha had left in the kitchen. "Pictures!"

"Aw, please don't!" Rogue protested. "Ah certainly don't look that good!"

Kurt pouted. "Please? Just for me?"

She sighed, but stood still long enough for him to snap the pictures. "Alright, don't you have somewhere else to be now?" Rogue grumbled, hoping he could take the hint.

"Ok, ok, but you have to let me know what happens tomorrow. And tell Warren that if he hurts you, I'll kill him."

"It's not like that," she told him with an eye roll. "We're friends. Ah'm just going because he needs a date."

"Ja, whatever. Have a good time, I'll see you later." With that, he teleported out, hopefully to his own apartment.

Rogue collapsed on the couch, careful not to wrinkle her dress. Warren wasn't set to pick her up for another hour or so, but that knowledge did nothing to stop the butterflies in her stomach. To keep her mind off what was going to happen, she pulled out one of her textbooks and set to the reading assignment.

Before she even realized it, the doorbell rang. It was past eight o'clock and none of her roommates had come back yet, but since they generally had lives of their own, this wasn't unexpected. Rogue got up to answer the caller.

"Didn't I tell you to always check before you answer the door?" Warren grinned at her. "But of course, looking as amazing as you do, any attacker would have to stop and stare first."

"Flatterer," she blushed, locking the door behind her. The pair went downstairs, where one of the Worthington limos was waiting. Rogue slid in the backseat and took a sniff of the air. "What's that smell?"

He grinned. "I figured that they food they have at the party really wasn't going to be your type, so I stopped and picked us up some burgers." A large white cardboard box was handed to her, as well as a towel to cover her clothes.

Her eyes lit up. "Oh, awesome. We don't get burgers like this too much; she doesn't do it too often, but no one likes to sit through a round of Kitty's 'You, like, know where that came from, right?'"

"I understand," he nodded. "Well, dig in."

As they ate and the driver drove them closer and closer to the party (though she did believe that they were going in circles for a while, seeing as they passed the FAU Schwartz building three times) she told him about how everything had been going since she and the team had moved here. "So Kitty's goin' someplace where your friend Riley tomorrow, and we're having a going away party for Sam on Saturday…"

"Whoa, wait a second," he interrupted her. "Kitty's going out with Riley tomorrow?"

Rogue raised an eyebrow at him. "Yeah? What's the problem?"

"I…I just never thought he was her type, is all…" He twirled a cold French fry through what was left of the ketchup on his plate.

"Warren, for as long as you've known Kitty she's only ever had a thing for Avalanche. And if that's her type, then God help her. Good thing she's got nine lives," she rolled her eyes. "So what's wrong with your friend anyway?"

He shrugged. "I didn't say there was anything wrong with him. He is my friend. But most of the time he just goes for the beautiful women that are just after his money or the name recognition. Essentially, he's the billionaire playboy personified."

"And all this time Ah that that was you," she smirked playfully.

"Then I guess that would make you the beautiful flirt whose just after my money," he shot back just as playfully.

"Touché. But anyway, Kitty's perfectly capable of takin' care of herself. She needs a little fun in her life."

That was the end of that conversation and Warren knew it. "Alright, I guess you're right. She's a big girl." He glanced outside the window. "We're going to be at the party in a minute. Are you ready?"

Rogue had already packed up the remains of her dinner and popped a breathe strip in her mouth. "Ready as Ah'll ever be, Ah guess." She looked nervous, and didn't do too well to hide it.

"You'll be fine," he assured her, reaching across the limo to squeeze her gloved hand. "And if they don't, we'll both get a laugh out of it."

It made her smile and that made him feel better. "Alright. Let's get this over with then," she sighed, as the driver opened the passenger's side door. Warren stepped out easily; he'd done this all his life, and was also quite adept at helping lady passengers out, as Rogue was surprised she didn't land flat on her face or ass. It was a good start at least.

The Worthington's business partner's lived in the penthouse of a very fancy building with a French name. Rogue wasn't the least surprised, and wondered why rich people couldn't use some of that money to buy some originality or creativity.

"Remember, the hosts are Mr. and Mrs. Montgomery. They own Montgomery and Sands, which is going to become Montgomery Inc. in partnership with Worthington Enterprises since Sands died two weeks ago," Warren explained to her on the elevator.

"Ya'll just don't waste time, do ya?" Rogue mused. Warren didn't have time to answer or even be offended since the doors opened into the Montgomery's foyer the next second.

A butler took their coats and Rogue's purse, then ushered them into the living room after informing them that they'd just finished dinner and dessert was going to be set out in a buffet in the next minute or two. The rest of the guests were standing or sitting around talking. Rogue was glad that she had to wear gloves; sweaty palms were no way of making a good impression.

"Oh, Warren!" A woman who Rogue could only assume was Mrs. Montgomery came up to them and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "So good of you to come."

"It's great to see you again, Karen," he smiled. "This is my date, Rogue. Rogue this is Karen Montgomery."

Luckily for Mrs. Montgomery the smile was already plastered on her face. Like the rest of the fake parts of her body, it didn't move as Rogue held out her hand, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Montgomery."

"Charmed, dear." It was a lie. "Excuse me for a moment. These caterers have no idea what their doing." This would have worked better if she had walked towards the buffet instead of towards one of her friends, immediately gossiping about the strange Southern girl her business partner's son had brought with him.

An idea occurred to Rogue. "Worthington, if this is what Ah think it is, Ah'm gonna kill you."

"As much as it may seem like a satanic ritual, I promise it's not," he smirked at her, holding out a fluke of champagne he'd picked up from a passing server.

"That's not what Ah'm talking about," she held the glass tightly but not tight enough for it to shatter. "If Ah'm only here for the shock factor, well…" The thought hurt.

"Shock factor? You mean so they can spread around the fact that I'm trying to rebel and date women they'd hate?" He frowned at her. "Just what do you take me for, Rogue? I know we were joking about me being a playboy, but I thought that was just a joke."

She sighed, focusing her gaze on the hardwood floor under the beautiful shoes he'd picked out for her. "Then why am Ah here?"

"I already explained that. Out of all the women I could have brought tonight, I figured we'd have the most fun. We're supposed to be making fun of everyone else, not arguing amongst ourselves." He put a hand on her shoulder. "Why do you doubt this so much anyway?"

Warren led her to a white love seat in the corner of the room, away from too much attention. Rogue realized that as boring as the sofa looked, it was incredibly comfortable and the Montgomery's decorator got brownie points in her book. "At the Institute, I was never the one people chose, especially in the romance department. Not that I could blame them; who really wants to date a psi vamp?

"Scott was always in love with Jean; Kurt had a thing for Kitty, then Tabby, then Amanda, and still Kitty, if I guess correctly. Evan and I were never close. The New Mutant boys were always a little young and after Rahne and Jubilee left, it just seemed like a contest on who could win the fair princess's heart. Obviously Bobby won that. No guys ever showed any interest in me." Apparently it had been her turn to lie. She and a certain Swamp Rat had definitely been attracted to each other, but she hadn't seen him in ages, so according to her that didn't count.

He nodded slowly, then examined the champagne that neither of them had drank. "Then I propose a toast. To hope that one day we can find people who love us for who we are." The fluke was raised along with a blond eyebrow towards her.

Her glass clinked lightly against his. "To hope."

With a shared smile, they both drank to the future.

* * *

Rogue returned to her apartment about an hour later. They'd gotten bored soon after and elected to take a drive around New York City to show Rogue the sites from a nighttime view. Both of them agreed that it had been an extremely enjoyable night when the limo pulled up in front of her building. He helped her out of the car and she smiled at him. "That's for taking me, Warren. Really, Ah mean it. If you ever want someone to help you make fun of your dad's colleagues again, you know who to call." 

"That I do." He leaned over, as if about to kiss her cheek, then stopped himself at the last moment and sat back. "Good night. Sleep well."

"You too." She walked towards the building, then, as an afterthought, turned around and blew him a kiss for fun. It was the closest he would ever get to the real thing, but she figured it'd have to do.

Kitty was on the couch waiting for her when she came in. "Hey, you! How'd it go?"

"It was nice," she sat on the other end and slipped off her heels. As usual, beautiful also meant uncomfortable as hell.

"By that grin on your face, I'd guess it was a little more than nice," Kitty yawned. "I'd love to hear all the details tomorrow, but I'm exhausted. Only wanted to stay up and make sure I didn't have to go kick anyone's ass before my date tomorrow."

Rogue was suddenly reminded of Warren's subtle warning against the date with Riley, but decided against mentioning it. No reason to bring down the girl's thunder. "Well, thanks, Kit. Ah'll be in in a sec."

Kitty stood up, stretching. "I'm glad you had a nice night, Rogue." She reached over, squeezing the girl's hand affectionately. "You really did deserve it. And Warren's a great guy."

Laying back on the couch and watching her friend leave for their bedroom, Rogue couldn't help but thinking that she agreed.

* * *

A/N: Sorry it took so long for this to come out. School has been swamping me with work. I have to outline the chapters of my law book that my teacher assigns and all I have to say about that is that whoever decided chapter 43 should be 42 pages needs to be shot. In the head. Repeatedly. Then beaten severely. 

Next chapter will most likely be a mixture of Jean's meeting with the modeling agency and Kitty's date with Riley. Just a head's up. And I'll do my best to work some JOTT in there for all you crazed fans.

Questions, comments, reactions and reviews are greatly appreciated.

* * *

Review Responses: 

DOJ: I tried to do a mix of Bobby/Amara and Sam for that chapter, and I guess it turned out pretty well. I always thought it was interesting how they paid hardly any interest in Sam till the last season, as he was always one of the most famous New Mutants. So I try to do my best by him when I can.

Jacx: There should be some JOTT in the next chapter. I can't have it in all of them or else this would be a JOTT fic and neglecting other characters is bad. Or at least that's what I tell myself.

Starrydreamz: I'm doing my absolute hardest to concentrate on every character equally while still providing a story. I'm glad you're enjoying it.

Amazing redd phoenix: I'm so happy you like Bobby/Amara. It's a random pairing to see usually, but I adore writing it. I'm going to be doing a story just about the pairing eventually, so it's nice to know there are some people who might actually read it.

Mattb3671: Not too many people write about Sam and Bobby, so I thought it was my job to give them a spotlight. Glad you liked it.

Realtfarraige: I did do a bit on Ray in this chapter and after Kitty's date with Riley he'll definitely have more time. I'd do it sooner, but it actually coincides with the date. Doug does not know about his mutation at this time; he just knows he's really good at languages. Glad you like the Bobby/Amara and Bobby working at the ice cream parlor will be showing up as much as I feel like torturing him. Thanks for reviewing.

Simba317: Well, the Riley Egan I knew wasn't really all that bad news. I didn't particularly like him, but I kind of just used the name because in my mind it screams "Person who is richer than God!" I've always thought that Bobby was sort of a leader to Sam, though they were really close. Amara seemed to fill up Jubilee's gap when she left, leaving a nice trio (or quartet when Tabby showed up).

I Heart the Distillers: Here's a chapter about Rogue for you! The Brotherhood will be in here eventually, I do promise that. I have big plans for Lance, Wanda and Pietro, but they have to wait until I get across a few other major plot points before they can come in. I'm waiting for it too.

GothikStrawberry: As a very very minor spoiler, I'm going to tell you that you will be very happy with all of your ideas on who Kitty should be with. I'm very happy you like Bobby and Amara, it's fun for me to write since there isn't a lot of precedent for it. I agree with the fact that Sam's learned to fend for himself all his life, and doesn't like handouts. On the issue of Evan's skateboarding competition, you have to remember that most of these people were from Bayville or surrounding areas who knew that Evan was a mutant on a day to day basis. This was set years after the initial news broadcast, which I don't think Sam was really part of anyway. People he meets on the road probably won't remember him. I've personally never seen the 90s animated series, but I also like XME Jean better than comic Jean. She just seems like a more likeable sort (I do like comic Jean as well, though she could have lightened up on some major things).

Slickboy444: I think my goal here is overall to show that the X-men are people and they do have normal situations as well as fighting the occasional super villain and having to deal with the racism that comes with being who they are. You're quite right with the hints that Bobby likes to forget about Amara's home country as much as possible. As for Kitty's love life…well, you'll just have to see. I don't think you'll be too disappointed though.

I-Love-Richard: Sam will be back, I promise. He'll actually be playing a major figure in a plot I've worked out later on. Some of the Acolytes will be showing up later on, but they won't necessarily be there as baddies. I do understand that a lot of people are Romy fans and I'm not saying that it won't be in this story. I just like to try some variety.

Telepathic Angel: I'm happy you like Bobby and Amara. There should be some Jott in the next chapter and several to come.

Agent-G: I like the Teen Titans. They're the only other comics I really consider myself a fan of. I don't know too much more about other Marvel series than the average reader and movie watcher. There will be cameos from other Marvel characters wherever I can fit them, but I'm not going to try to write characters I don't know about and presume to insult their creators that way. It really wasn't a planned crossover, I just needed a name of a photographer and since I adore Donna (who as Wonder Girl and Troia was a New York superhero for many years) I put her down and added Starfire in for my kicks. As for other Marvel models, I just plain don't like Betsy and the fact that Mary Jane was a model completely escaped my mind.

Whylime: You could be right on there with a pregnancy, but I'm not going to say who, just to keep you guessing. And I'm glad I'm not the only one who knows all their motocross information from the Motocrossed movie. Makes me feel a little less pathetic.

AngelicFairy: Thank you for all the nice compliments! I'm very happy you're enjoying this!

Diaz F.: Kitty will be in the next chapter if Jean decides not to take up the whole thing. Most of the time, I really don't know until I'm writing it. I'll do my best though!


	7. Troublemaker

Bright Lights

An X-men: Evolution fanfic by Lavender Gaia

Editing and Assistance by Laine (though not betaed—sorry!)

Chapter Seven: Troublemaker

First draft: October 7, 2005

Disclaimer: I do not own X-men Evolution or any of its characters. They are all property of Marvel. Still don't own Donna, Riley Egan or the Nekohanten. AJ is my genderless minion but I don't own Daniel.

* * *

Jean didn't like lying. It was one of those values that her parents had actually drilled in her head as a child, and it stuck. As a child she never lied, which actually led to her and her sister or her and Annie getting in to trouble far more than a child who bent the truth a little. 

The personal promise never to lie only became that much more important when she moved into the Institute and realized that she was a telepath. It was an insult to be lied to when she could see whether or not they really were. By this time, she only lied if it was very important, practically a life or death situation.

Today she lied to her husband and it was tearing her up inside.

Scott had woken her up that morning with waffles in bed (they were Eggo, but it's the thought that counts) and a hot cup of coffee exactly the way she liked it. There was no greater way to wake up than one of his kisses, soft and loving. "Good morning, beautiful."

"Good morning to you too, Scott. What's all this?" she looked at the tray of food in front of her.

"I don't have classes till this afternoon, so I thought I'd make you breakfast and maybe straighten up around here."

Her heart melted. "You're so sweet. Thank you for all of this, always great to start off a morning class with a good breakfast."

"I'm glad you like it." He kissed the top of her head. "Enjoy."

She smiled lightly, then grabbed his arm as he tried to walk out of the bedroom. "I'd enjoy it more if you sat with me."

He walked to the other side of the king sized bed and slipped under the comforter. "Of course. So you have a class in the morning…what are you doing after that?"

"Well, one of my professors was telling me about this discussion group in the student union. I'll probably check that out." Jean stuffed a piece of waffle in her mouth, silently cursing it for weighing down her tongue after Scott had gone through so much trouble to make sure it was lightly toasted all the way through.

Scott nodded, adjusting his glasses. "That sounds like fun. I'd love to come, but I have a class then. Fill me in on what happens, ok? Or maybe I could check it out halfway through."

She forced it down with a gulp of orange juice; how could she lie to this man who bought pulpless orange juice for her even though he loved the pulp? "He said for everyone to just meet in the student union. We can't just take it over like that, but he should have secured us another definite destination by then. I'll just meet you at home after it's over."

"Ok, that sounds good to me. How about we go out tonight? Dinner, movie, something like that? We really haven't had a nice night out for a while," he kissed her neck, as if tempting her with a bit more than not having to cook for a night.

Jean smiled despite herself. "That sounds good. I'm gonna get in the shower."

"What about the waffles?"

"Eggos always taste better after you let them sit for a while," she said off the top of her head, justifying to herself that it could be true. After giving him a quick kiss and sliding out of bed, she locked herself in their master bathroom and running the hot water in an attempt to scrub her disgust in herself off.

Though she felt horrible, as Jean sat in class and took notes on what the professor was lecturing about, she couldn't help but be excited. Today she was actually going to meet with a modeling agency and sign a contract. It was the dream of a lot of women in the city, yet for her it was just a fluke. She just hoped she liked the work.

When all of her morning classes were over she went to the bathroom to fix her hair and make up and check to see if her skirt and shirt wasn't wrinkled. Usually she got offended when Rogue referred to her as "Miss Perfect" but at the moment it would be a welcome confirmation that she looked all right.

Arriving at the restaurant ten minutes later, she found that Mr. Zimmerman and Miss Troy were already there. "I'm sorry, I'm not late, am I?" she asked as she took her seat across the table from them.

"No, we're just early. It's nice to see you, Miss Grey," Max reached across the table and shook her hand.

"Actually, there's something I think I should tell you," Jean said softly. "It's Grey-Summers. I'm married."

"Oh, how nice," Donna smiled.

Zimmerman frowned. "Is there a reason it doesn't say that on your application?"

"I haven't had a chance to really change my drivers license since I got married. But since I have a new apartment, I should be getting it done soon," Jean explained.

Her future boss nodded. "Alright then." Putting his briefcase on the table, he pulled out a large stack of papers. "Here is your contract. You can take it home and have a lawyer look it over if you'd like."

"I don't think that'll be necessary," she murmured, pretending to look over the contract as she used her telepathy to look over his thoughts for anything that seemed sinister. Finding nothing bad related to her contract, she pulled out her pen and signed all the necessary lines.

Donna handed her a menu as Max slid the papers back into his briefcase. "Great. How about we get some lunch?"

Jean took the menu and looked it over before deciding to get a Caesar salad. She wasn't all that hungry after eating Scott's waffles this morning, but she didn't want them to think she was one of the models who starved themselves on a daily basis.

"If you're not busy next Friday afternoon, we have a job for you," Max told her after the waitress left with their orders. "Donna here will shooting it and the model you met, Miss Anders, will be there as well. Can you make it."

It would be the second afternoon in a row that she would have to blow Scott off, but she couldn't say no to her first modeling job. "That sounds great."

Mr. Zimmerman nodded. "Excellent, I'll have my secretary call you with the details. Which is the best means to reach you by?"

"My cell phone. Definitely. We're still having problems with our landline," she lied.

When the waitress brought their drinks, Donna raised hers. "How about a toast to a great time working together." Max raised his glass and took a long swig

"Here here…" Jean agreed, taking a sip of her iced tea, pushing all doubts and guilt to the back of her mind. She'd just have to get over it.

* * *

"Amara, where are my strappy black sandals?" Kitty groaned as she searched through the pile of shoes at the bottom of her closet. 

"You said after the last time you wore them that they were shoes of death and you wanted to me get rid of them that special way I can," she called back from the couch.

Shadowcat whined. "But I need them!"

Suddenly, the girl from Nova Roma was standing in her doorway. "Relax, they were in my room. As if I'd actually destroy you shoes in a pool of lava."

"Awesome!" She hopped up and took them from the younger girl, slipping them on her feet.

"I think you take the 'beauty is pain' bit too far, Kitty," Amara shook her head. "But I brought you these too." She held out a pair of dangling gold earrings studded with jewels.

Kitty gaped at them, taking each earring carefully. "They're gorgeous. Where'd you get them?"

"Home. I've had them forever," the lady told her lightly, sitting on her bed and reading the back of the book Kitty was currently working her way through.

The older woman blinked. "But…that means these are real!"

"Of course they're real!" Amara said indignantly, offended that her friend would think otherwise.

"Amara, I can't wear these! They're so delicate and they could come all the way from ancient Rome; do you know how much money these could be worth."

"But…" the Roman looked sad. "I want you to wear them. It goes great with your outfit and you know I don't care about the money. Please, Kitty?"

After a moment's hesitation, she slipped them on. "Ok, ok. You know, it's really hard to say no to you."

She giggled. "I'll take that as a compliment. By the way, you look great."

Kitty took a step back to admire herself in the mirror. She hadn't bothered to straighten her hair and the part that wasn't up in the half-ponytail hung in loose waves by her shoulders. She'd stolen one of the new shirts Tabitha had gotten on her shopping trip with Jean; it was a light, striped shirt that wrapped around her waist until it tied to the side, making it a very deep V-neck that Rogue had said "Oh my god, that makes you look like you have cleavage!" Lucky, the Southerner had been fast enough to dodge the large dictionary thrown at her.

Company that with a swishy black skirt and the heeled sandals of doom and she did look good. Before she could thank her friend, Tabitha poked her head in the room. "Hey, Kit, you want me to be your cell phone savior?"

"My what?" she blinked, spraying on some perfume.

"I'll call you at an allotted time, if you're having fun ignore it. If you'd sell your soul to get away, answer and make up some story about having to go home right away," Tabitha explained.

Kitty nodded. "Sounds good. Call sometime between nine and ten, k?" The doorbell rang. "I bet that's him."

"Have a great time," Amara told her, squeezing her hand.

"Thanks," she smiled at her friends before going to open the door.

Riley stood there with a bouquet of roses, looking handsome in black slacks and a jacket. "Hey, there."

"Hi," She smiled shyly and gestured towards the flowers. "Are those for me?"

"Of course," he handed them over and placed a kiss on her cheek. "You look fantastic."

Kitty blushed. "Thanks. One of my roommates will put these in water for me," she said as more of an order than a request as she put them on the entrance table and grabbed her purse.

"Ready?" Riley asked.

"You bet," she stepped out into the hall and closed the door behind her. "So where are we going?"

"I made reservations at Nekohanten," he told her.

She stared at him with wide eyes. Nekohanten was a hot new Japanese restaurant that all the stars were going to. She'd read in a magazine that you had to make reservations as early as three months in advance. "How'd you manage that?"

Riley smirked. "My father sold them the property for the restaurant. All I had to do was drop my name and I got a reservation."

"Wow…" she whispered. "Well, thank you."

"No problem." He opened the front door of the building before going to open the passenger side of his car for her. Kitty's jaw dropped. It was a brand new black BMW Z3 convertible.

She slid into the leather seat, silently thanking Warren for inviting her to his party. As they drove towards the restaurant, he told her about his family's new yacht and that even though his parents had taken it out for the weekend maybe they could spend the weekend on it when it got back into port.

There were several paparazzi outside Nekohanten when they pulled up and Riley gave the keys to the valet. Kitty slipped out of the car as gracefully as possible, trying not to blink from the camera flashes.

A host seated them immediately, trying to butter up Riley the whole time, who obviously didn't mind. Kitty looked over her menu quickly, searching for something that didn't have meat.

"The menu is in Japanese," Riley deadpanned.

Kitty raised an eyebrow at him. "It is a Japanese restaurant."

"So? Who speaks Japanese?" He scoffed.

"I do," Kitty smiled lightly, glad that that was one of the many languages the professor had taught them telepathically.

"Well, well, well," he smirked. "You're just full of surprises, aren't you? So what would you recommend?"

She shrugged. "Depends what you like. I'm personally going to get okonomiyaki with rice and pickled vegetables."

Riley blinked. "Oko-what? …Do they have teriyaki pork?" Kitty nodded. "I'll have that."

The waiter approached them shortly, speaking in slow English. "Hello, Egan-san, Miss. How can I help you tonight?"

"Konban wa, Yuusuke-san," Kitty greeted him, then continued to tell him their order in Japanese.

He was relieved. "Arigatou gozaimasu."

"Dou itashimashite," she nodded as he walked away.

Her date was staring at her. "I'm impressed. No idea what you said, but I'm impressed, nonetheless."

Kitty grinned. "Well, I have a lot of little secrets."

The two continued to talk until the food came and she was glad when it did; maybe he wasn't used to having to talk to someone on a date, but he wasn't exactly a sparkling conversationalist. Plus, as she had heard, the food was excellent and she enjoyed it greatly.

After they had finished eating, Riley asked if she wouldn't mind making an appearance at Club Asterisk. "It'll just take a minute. We'll just talk a little and then leave. I hate to dance, so we don't have to worry about that."

Kitty just smiled and tried to hold back a sigh. She wanted to dance. As a young girl, she wanted to grow up to be a dancer.

Luckily, as he promised, they only stayed a half hour, long enough for Riley to smooze and have a couple shots of something she didn't even want to know. She agreed to go back to his penthouse when he was finished. _I bet he'll be more comfortable if we get a chance to sit alone and talk, _she reasoned.

"This is an amazing view," she gushed from the apartment, looking out the floor to ceiling windows. "Great apartment."

"Thanks, my parents bought it," he grinned. Kitty forced herself not to roll her eyes, before joining him on the couch. "I'm glad you like it."

He leaned over and kissed her, Kitty responding immediately. What he lacked in intelligence he certainly made up for in his lips. Or perhaps it was all the practice he got. After a while, she leaned back, resting her neck against the arm of the couch.

One of his hands rested on her hip, stroking lightly as his lips made their way down to suck on her neck. Kitty closed her eyes and gave herself to the moment. His hands started moving underneath her shirt, rubbing her skin lightly. For a moment, she felt uncomfortable; obviously he was used to moving a lot faster than she was.

Her cell phone rang as one of his hands fingered her bra clasp. "I…I have to get that," she whispered, getting off the couch and reaching for her purse. "Hello?"

"Hey, babe, what's up?" Tabitha asked in her usual loud voice.

"Really? That's terrible," Kitty acted, hinting to her roommate.

"That bad?" The blonde sounded sympathetic. "Men suck, I think we should just get used to it."

She nodded. "Alright, sweetie, I'll be home as soon as I can. You just feel better. Bye." Hanging up, she turned to her date. "I'm so sorry, Riley. My roommate's sick and I don't want her left alone."

He looked slightly annoyed. "Well, it's going to take a while to get the car out of the garage."

"That's ok," she assured him quickly, wondering exactly what he had planned to happen tonight. "It's New York City, I'll catch a cab."

Riley nodded. "Ok, if you're sure."

She smiled, then kissed his cheek as she fixed her shirt. "Thank you for dinner, Riley."

As she headed for the door, he called out, "Any time, pretty Kitty!" Luckily, she held back the shudder until she was in the elevator. There were no cabs downstairs, so she decided that no matter how much her feet hurt that she would just start walking in the direction she thought was home.

A few minutes later she heard someone walking behind her. "Hey!"

She turned furiously, ready to prove to this mugger or rapist that you don't mess with any girl that trained in martial arts with the Wolverine.

"Hey, it's just me!" Doug told her, peeking over large boxes.

Kitty sighed in relief. "You shouldn't sneak up on people like that!"

"I'm sorry. What are you doing out here?" He asked, shifting the boxes.

"Just got out of a really bad date," she grimaced.

He groaned. "I'm sorry. Hey, why don't you let me drop these off and I'll walk you home. I don't want you going alone."

She smiled. "Sounds good. What's in there, anyway?"

"Computer parts. C'mon." She followed him towards a store that said 'Computers, Etc.' in the window. "Hey, Dan, I brought your stuff!"

A young man with dark hair who she could only assume was Dan came out of a room in the back. "Great, bring it back here. But I don't think I ordered her."

"This is my friend, Kitty. Kitty, this is Dan." The two shook hands as all three went to the back. "And the fluorescent light bulb working on the computer is AJ."

A pale young man with bright red hair flipped off Doug. "Shut up. This thing is giving me hell."

Kitty peeked over his shoulder at the laptop. "Mind if I give it a try?"

Dan and AJ exchanged a look, but Doug nodded. "Give her a chance; she's better than me at these things."

The redhead got off his chair and gestured for her to sit down, explaining what was wrong. She set right to work, pulling up screens and typing furiously. When it still wouldn't bend to her will, she got up, searching through bins of spare parts that were littered on shelves against the wall. Fifteen minutes later she announced, "Done!"

All three men looked at her in shock. "You can not be done," AJ insisted. "I've been working on that for three days!"

Daniel started running the computer. "Oh my god, it works. You're amazing."

She blushed. "It's not that big of a deal."

Doug put a hand on her shoulder. "She's being modest. The girl is a computer genius. While most people had dates on the weekends, we used to make programs and hack into government files."

Kitty raised an eyebrow at him. "Speak for yourself. I had dates."

"I don't doubt it," Daniel nodded. "Do you want a job?"

"…what?"

"This is basically a store for software, custom builds, and repairs. If you can do that with any computer, I promise I can make it worth your while," he explained.

AJ smirked, "And since he won't say it, I will: It definitely can't hurt to have a hot girl working, as mostly nerds come in here."

Kitty giggled as both Dan and Doug hit him upside the head. "Well, I'd have to work it around my school schedule, but I can come in Monday afternoon and talk to you about that."

He nodded. "That sounds great."

Doug put an arm around Kitty's shoulders. "Now, if you all are done ogling, I should probably get her home before her roommates worry and take it out on me."

"Whoa, you two weren't on a date, were you?" AJ stared at Doug in disbelief.

"No!" the pair insisted.

"Don't worry, you'll get used to ignoring him," Daniel assured. "See you on Monday, Kitty."

She waved. "Bye!" As she and Doug made their way back outside she smiled at him. "Your friends are nice."

He nodded. "They're good guys. Did this make your night any better?"

"Definitely! I may have had a bad date, but I met some nice people and got a job out of it. Thanks, Doug."

He ran a hand through his blond hair, then hailed down a cab. It stopped at Kitty's place first and she gave him a kiss on the cheek before climbing out and going upstairs.

"There you are!" Amara sighed with relief. "You were supposed to have left Riley's a half hour ago."

"I did, but I ran into Doug Ramsey on the way home," Kitty explained, sighing in relief as she took off her sandals.

Tabitha wrinkled her nose. "That dork?"

"Don't call him that, Tabitha!"

"Yeah," Amara agreed. "He may be a dork, but he's a very cute dork."

Tabby nodded her consent and Kitty just rolled her eyes. "Anyway, he introduced me to some of his friends and I got a job fixing computers. All in all, not a bad night. Except for the date."

"What was wrong with that, anyway?" Rogue asked, coming out of the bathroom.

Kitty sighed. "He was so boring! And all he wanted to do when he got back to his apartment was make out with me, and I'm pretty sure he assumed it wasn't going to stop there. Oh, well, at least the food was good."

"Like I said," the blonde leaned back in her chair, stretching. "Men suck."

"Hey!" Amara hit her with a pillow. "Speak for yourself."

"Nothing against Bobby!" Tabitha insisted. "I mean, in what world would he be considered a man?"

She continually beat her with the fluffy pillow until the phone rang. "Hello?" she answered it, slightly out of breath. "Hey, Jean. Huh? Um, ok. Tabby, it's for you."

Tabitha hopped out of her seat, grabbed the phone and went to go sit on one of the kitchen stools. "Hey, you. So, how'd it go? Really? That's great. Hey, don't be like that. You're not doing anything wrong. Trust me, I can tell what's right and wrong, I just…prefer to toe the line. Alright, I'll see you tomorrow. Bye." She hung up and put the phone back in the cradle.

"What was that about?" Kitty asked curiously.

"Nothing," Tabby replied quickly. "I'm going to bed. Night."

"Night…" the three chorused together, watching her retreat to her room before exchanging a look. Those two were hiding something and they didn't like it.

* * *

A/N: This chapter would have been out a lot sooner, but my computer broke and then Compaq lost it so I had to go get a new one. But here's everything I promised, including Jott moments. Yay. 

I've created an X-men: Evolution forum to talk about the show and everything related to it. You can find it at rosealchemist dot proboards26 dot com or by clicking the homepage link in my profile. Since I'm sure you're an Evo fan if you're reading this, I hope you'll check it out and join!

As of this chapter, I officially put this story on hiatus. It's really the hardest for me to get out, more than a chore than anything else, and even with all my ideas my beta agreed with me that she can't see it going anywhere. There's so many other things that I could be focusing my time on, especially since I'm going to be super busy with my law class until this semester is over. I hope that after I step away from it for a while that I can get back into it and provide you with new chapters that are fun for me to write, though they might be slow coming. I hope no one is very upset with me and I do promise to try to get out a new chapter as soon as I feel I'm ready. I'm not abandoning this story!

Questions, comments, reactions and reviews are greatly appreciated.

* * *

Review Responses: 

Starrydreamz: Half the chapter is all about our favorite Kitty cat! Sorry for the late update, computer problems suck!

Jacx: I'm glad you're enjoying it!

Slickboy444: Completely understandable, not everyone likes every couple. I for one don't like Romy. At this point, I am not sure if Betsy will show up. She would create a good amount of conflict, but I honestly don't like her character in the recent X-men comics. Unless that starts to change or I read some of the old comics where I enjoy her, it's going to be on the fence. I can promise that Jean will meet up with Mary Jane though!

Realtfarraige: Well, the Professor helps pay for their bills and mortgage, but for anything else it's their job to pay for it, since they are old enough. Sam will be coming in from time to time, as well as some more mutants from Bayville. If Rahne and Jubilee are in it, they won't have big parts, but they'll show up.

Nettlez: I'm glad that you like the Warren and Rogue, and that you like the story.

Whylime: I like writing the sibling moments, and the reason they're in the same class is because Kurt's taking German for Beginners in order to get a cake grade. Not that I ever do that…

DOJ: I always wondered why Sam was so neglected; he was a big character in the comics and I love him. And yes, we all miss Lance…He'll be there eventually though.

GothikStrawberry: I think happy couples suck too, but I like writing happy Bobby/Amara. Well, something will happen regarding Nova Roma, but I can promise you her dad won't die and it would be kind of hard for her mom to die again.

Strayphoenix: I'm glad you like it and I'll try to update In the Heat more often.

Telepathic Angel: I'm glad you liked Rogue and Warren's date, and I hope you enjoy the JOTT in this chapter.

Claudia: Wow, you wrote a lot. I'm glad that you're enjoying this. I am trying to give all the characters their time to shine. I do my best to treat Rogue like I would any other character, even though I don't like her as much. I always thought that Sam and Bobby were close and Bobby's always been the leader of the New Mutants while Sam is quieter. Amara wasn't offended by that comment because they were don't have universities like we do in Nova Roma. I'm so glad that my fanfiction can influence your dreams and I hope you enjoyed it!

AngelicFairy: It's always fun writing for the guys and it's nice to try something new where Rogue and Warren is concerned.

Diaz F.: I'm happy you like the Rogue/Warren! I was kind of getting sick of the Romy, and I'm glad there's someone who agrees with me.


End file.
